Do you want an NFC iPhone?

If rumors are to be believed, you won’t get an NFC iPhone from Apple; well, not this year anyway. The WWDC keynote speech is over and we heard nada, nothing, zip. As we have speculated in our post yesterday that may not mean that the new iPhone due to be released in the fall will be NFC free. But there again it doesn’t necessarily mean it will be NFC-enabled either. Judging by the hits to NFC Rumors we can see there are a lot of our readers wanting to know about either NFC-enabling their current iPhone or looking for information and rumors about the potential of an NFC iPhone.

Why do people care if the next iteration is an NFC iPhone?

Normally, an anti Apple detractor could put it down to vanity, status or greed as motivation, but NFC is different. Due to the way in which we purchase our phones in the U.S., U.K. or many other western countries, with the obligatory 2-year or even 3-year contract attached and the subsidized phone package ensures we end up having a large cost of ownership of  any smartphone we carry. This is particularly true in the case of the iPhone which is often not available un-tethered from a contract. If you take out a contract you have the bill and the phone for at least two years. In the case of the iPhone and for the sake of an example, let’s work through some guesstimate figures. Your contract and service agreement will cost you approximately (this will vary from plan to plan)$100 per month x 24 $2400 + $299 for the cost of the fully featured iPhone = $2699.00. In or around that time, it is likely that Apple will end support for your iPhone as well, as it has for the iPhone 3G when it was less than two years old. Okay, you understand the cost of ownership but what makes having an NFC iPhone so important in the next two years?

There are options out there so you can have an NFC iPhone

There are certain features that have been added to the humble smartphone that we now consider necessities like email, SMS, a camera and of course the ability to make a call. We wouldn’t buy a phone without these, what seem now, basic features.  NFC is going to be one of those features soon, as a way to pay for goods and services, accept money for goods and services and generally allow us to interact in a world that is about to go NFC crazy, and that coupled with the term of service agreement is why people care about whether the next Apple birthed will be an NFC iPhone. We can hear all you Android lovers now, “Just buy an Android and have NFC and ditch Apple!” but in reality you have probably already found on other forums and sites that Apple buyers up to this point have been loyal, and for good reason. The product is second to none in quality and the operating system is intuitive and fully featured, and quite frankly every bit as good as Android’s and has more apps available, and they are strong reasons to hope Apple gives its customers what they want which is an NFC iPhone.

How can iPhone owners have an NFC iPhone even if Apple doesn’t include the NFC chipset in the iPhone 4s?

We highlighted three ways yesterday that could enable your phone to be an NFC-enabled device, but two of those options either don’t apply or are not proven enough to rely on. The NFC sticker is an option which is used in Japan, but security concerns prevail here in the U.S. So, that may not be an option for you getting an NFC iPhone. The NFC micro SD option is a bust because iPhones do not accept external memory which leaves non NFC iPhone owners stuck with the sim option that will likely be carrier locked.

Well, there may be a third innovative area we are yet to explore that could allow you to turn your iPhone in to an NFC iPhone: Accessories.

Is there an accessory available for my iPhone that will make it a secure NFC iPhone?

Short answer, yes! If you read our post yesterday about turning a non NFC phone into an NFC phone you would have seen we mentioned a company called Device Fidelity. Device Fidelity unveiled an iPhone case back in December  of last year that can make any iPhone an NFC iPhone with the use of its NFC Micro SD technology. It looks like a battery pack case for an iPhone and houses an external antenna also. There is an iPhone 3G/3Gs version and an iPhone 4 version available. It works with Visa’s payWave app for the iPhone and within a few short minutes, hey presto you have an NFC iPhone. This product has been certified under Visa’s strict guidelines for security but we couldn’t find any pricing on the company’s website.

There is another Visa certified option too. Wireless Dynamics has developed a similar concept as Device Fidelity’s it likes to call iCarte, but theirs fits on to the bottom of your older non NFC iPhone in a similar way as Griffin RF transmitters do. Again available for all three iterations of iPhone and even has its own custom app. iCarte even has a MIFARE app for reading and writing tags, but alas again no details about how much it will cost for you to turn your favorite smartphone into an NFC iPhone on the company’s website.

We will update on pricing details when we get them and hope to review both NFC iPhone systems in the not too distant future.