Apple's iBeacon Mobile Payment System Is Death Knell for NFC

While rivals Samsung, Google, Nokia and HTC all rushed to embrace NFC technology as a new way for users to make contactless payments, Apple has kept the industry wondering for the past two years, with at least one analyst predicting that Apple would turn to Bluetooth Low Energy instead of NFC. NFC enables smartphones and point-of-sale (POS) payment terminals to communicate at short range by being tapped together, using NFC tags and other small transmitters to send and receive information.