As support for near-field communication on mobile phones slowly expands, there are two major platforms still holding off. Apple’s iOS and Windows Phone have yet to add NFC capabilities to their respective operating systems, but Digitimes is reporting that both companies are working to change that. NFC support for iOS and Windows Phone is expected in 2012 — perhaps iOS 6 and Apollo?
I suspect one of the reasons why Apple is delaying NFC support is because it isn’t widely adopted just yet. Apple likes to wait until a large sum of people find value in a feature before it adds the feature in any of its products. A prime example is the iPhone’s lack of 4G LTE support and the Mac’s missing Blu-ray disc drive. As for Microsoft, I’m sure it’s a bit of the same thing, especially since Windows Phone is a comparably new operating system.
Even with Android, Symbian, and BlackBerry all backing NFC right now, it’s not being used very much, as the Google Wallet rollout is painfully slow. Jack Dorsey’s Square service for making and accepting payments is a hit, but doesn’t require NFC technology. Nonetheless, Digitimes says “the proportion of NFC-enabled smartphones will quickly increase from less than 10% currently to over 50% in two to three years.”