No NFC? Business users rush to offer Apple iOS 6 Passbook support for iPhone 5

September 19, 2012 10:44 AM EDT

Apple [AAPL] upset some when it failed to deliver support for Near Field Communications (NFC) within the iPhone 5, but perhaps it wasn’t necessary after all -- the company has a Passbook plan to give consumers some of what they want, while two million pre-orders show NFC isn’t the dealbreaker some tech pundits believe.

Educating customers

Passbook is Apple’s iOS 6 app that enables consumers to carry vouchers, boarding passes, event tickets and more on their iPhone. 

It was developed by a team which included Starbucks 2D barcode creator and NFC genius, Benjamin Vigier, who now works at Apple. Vigier also designed PayPal Mobile, Sprint’s MyMoneyManager and a variety of mobile wallet solutions for carriers, banks and others.

As ever with some of Apple’s biggest innovations, the implementation was introduced relatively quietly, but the rapid deployment support across the air, event and retail industries show the firm has found a way to offer consumers the mobile wallet features they want without requiring they use the arguably fragmented NFC standard.

Eventbrite has also confirmed its plan to support Passbook. The firm is responsible for ticketing 500,000 events per year. All tickets to all its events are expected to be made available by late September, the company told me.

Stressing the company’s historic focus on mobile innovation, the company’s vice president of products, Julie Thompson, told me: “Our integration with Passbook brings tickets for the unique and wide array of classes, events, festivals and concerts hosted on Eventbrite to iPhone and iPad users looking to keep all their tickets, loyalty cards and coupons in one place.”

Airlines, including Virgin, have already begun deployment of Passbook support across their ticketing and boarding pass systems. Delta, Sheraton and Ticketmaster have also announced plans to introduce support for Apple’s non-payment payment standard.

Wide, fast deployment

Meanwhile ticketing provider Accesso has announced its plans to support Passbook, meaning customers at Columbus Zoo and the Cedar Fair theme parks will be able to use their iPhone as a ticket. 

Steve Brown, accesso CEO says: "We know iPhone users will be eager to leverage this dynamic new technology so we worked aggressively to integrate with the new operating system well in advance so that our clients and their guests can begin leveraging Apple's new Passbook feature from day one."

Retailers are also getting into Passbook, one interesting report explains:

  • Starbucks will integrate Passbook support in their existing Payment System.
  • Target intends offering instant coupons as visitors enter Target Stores.
  • Amtrak will offer ticketing services for its trains.
  • Plans to implement iPhone support within airport security are already in place.
  • Fairfax Media’s Event Cinemas will also support it.

With such momentum behind the tech it’s not great surprise that, despite iOS 6 not even being available yet, there’s already a range of providers offering Passbook coupon creation solutions.

Tello already offers its PassTools solution which lets businesses create and manage Passbook passes, working closely with Apple during the beta stage to get this solution right. The company offers form-based Passbook creation tools which are easy to use (see here).

Another provider, Kudit, also offers a Passbook creation tool which is currently in beta. Dubbed PassSource, this also makes it easy for business users to create and manage their iOS passes.

A third, CodeBroker, today announced its Solution Services for Passbook. Once again these are Web-based tools retailers can use to enable loyalty, coupon and gift card schemes.

Why no NFC?

So why has Apple failed to adopt NFC? Simply put, it’s because right now the technology is fragmented; there’s an insufficient mass of retailers ready to support it (just 2 percent), and the technology would suck battery life from the device. 

There’s also a great deal of work to be done in order to convince consumers they can safely turn the cash in their wallet into something digital. There’s already enough digital lifestyle information in any smartphone user’s device, after all. A recent CreditDonkey survey confirms 68 percent of US shoppers prefer using credit and debit cards to digital wallets.

Future implementations will see payment card integration in which a user’s nominated credit card will be charged for goods and services, though iTunes may not become a payment system itself, a report suggests.

“Apple has a rather long history of changing the business plans of even the most successful companies, today we are seeing this again.  Passbook will render irrelevant and redundant perhaps dozens of products in the market and not yet to market,” a Quora report predicts.

As Asymco’s Horace Dediu points out: “Apple has the largest collection of credit cards...and those users are one click away from making any type of purchase.”

Apple’s iterative move is an intelligent execution. First it will offer consumers a transaction-type technology it can comfortably secure and consumers can securely and comfortably use. Later steps seem likely to see the gentle introduction of payment services of various kinds. At some point, presumably once NFC terminals are available across a larger tranche of retailers, it is possible the company will move to deploy NFC in a future device, if it chooses to do so.

Competing devices meanwhile are offering NFC support inside devices, letting consumers down as they do. Promised the digital wallet, consumers are unable to find outlets who support the tech, and end up with degraded battery life and the feeling of being sold a technology for which there is no great purpose at this time.

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