decided in its 5, but set up a precursor to a mobile wallet called Passbook, which runs in the iOS 6 mobile operating system. Passbook stores data, such as a Starbucks card, to make payments with the iPhone 5. The user shows a barcode on the phone's display to a barcode reader at Starbucks store to buy a cup of coffee.

Because Apple decided to forgo NFC in the latest iPhone, some analysts said the rollout of mobile wallet capabilities could take much longer in the U.S.

Last week, a panel of mobile wallet experts at the MobileCon IT conference said it would take as long as eight years for smartphone-ready with only 25% of U.S. smartphone uses, partly because consumers are content to pay with their credit cards, and many still use paper checks to pay their bills.

In fact, one panel member Ryan Hughes, chief marketing officer for Isis, said U.S. consumers aren't widely asking for mobile commerce, which presents a marketing challenge for Isis to explain the benefits of the mobile wallet over the physical "leather wallet."

For more than a year, has offered a Google Wallet app on some NFC smartphones over Sprint's network and has been steadily working with partners to roll out tens of thousands of NFC-ready payment terminals in the U.S. Even so, analysts don't see smartphone users clamoring for the mobile wallet capability.