Apple iPhone 5 "Too Cool" for Near Field Communication

Sticking with tradition of continuing to

, Apple

has reportedly skipped the option of adhering to modern mobile payment standards, according to

. NFC (Near Field Communication technology) was the chip left out of the new iPhone's setup. eBay's

Chief Executive John Donahoe has jokingly referred to NFC as standing for "Not For Commerce" and does not support the technology (which is backed by large credit card companies in the United States) along with many retailers and business owners that refuse to pay to upgrade their systems to support the mobile app. In response to the decision to not include NFC, Apple is developing an application called Passbook, which will serve as a loyalty program for consumers that hold the new iPhone, much like the digital wallet programs already developed by eBay, PayPal, Visa

and Google

. All of these programs aim to combine bank accounts, rewards programs and credit/debit cards together in both the online and physical storefront realm. NFC supporters did hope that Apple would include the chip in the new product, but the digital wallet war is a battle that will not be won easily, and those that hoped for the option will likely feel let down. This will likely not affect sales of the product as the changes witnessed with the latest version of the iPhone, and will likely only help support increased sales. According to Piper Jaffray, consumer sentiment on the new iPhone has increased exponentially compared to the iPhone 4S, and analysis of blog posts and Twitter activity is up an estimated 100 percent and 460 percent year-over-year, respectively. In a Friday report, Piper Jaffray wrote, "we believe that 73% of tweets about the iPhone 5 during launch day were positive compared to 51% for the iPhone 4S launch. We believe this is to be expected given the phone is redesigned while the iPhone 4S was not. More importantly the positive reception of the phone gives us greater confidence that Apple can not only meet our 6-10 million iPhone 5 unit estimate for the rest of September, but also hit our 49 million unit estimate for the December quarter, which assumes 32% y/y growth." Catalysts for this decision by Apple? If Passbook proves successful, then the iPhone shouldn't face any failures in the regard, despite the fact that NFC is supported by Isis, Verizon

, AT&T

, T-Mobile, American Express

, JPMorgan Chase

and Capital One Financial

. On the other hand, since mobile makers have shown reluctance to engineer the NFC chip placement in their products due to not all merchants being able to accept the technology, NFC may have a rough road ahead of it as well, possibly resulting in obsolescence.