All smartphones brands with NFC differentiate their products, where iPhone 5 lacks.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

All smartphones brands with NFC differentiate their products, where iPhone 5 lacks.

Although Apple's iPhone 5 is expected to enjoy strong sales, the lack of NFC (near field communication) functionality in the latest iPhone model will allow rival brands to differentiate their products and to become priority partners for launching NFC-enabled applications and services in cooperation with financial and telecom service companies, according to industry sources.

Most industry watchers believe that the reason Apple rolled out the iPhone 5 without built-in NFC functionality is that Apple aims to promote its in-house developed Passbook technology, which has already integrated a number of functionalities, including the processing of boarding passes, membership cards, tickets, value-stored cards, and various kinds of coupons, but not yet credit and debit cards.

Since a number of smartphone platforms, including Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Bada as well as the forthcoming Windows Phone 8, all support NFC technology, financial firms, telecom carriers and advertisement agencies, among others, are likely to tie up with non-iPhone vendors to launch NFC-enabled services, said the sources.

Samsung Electronics has won the largest number of NFC-related cooperation projects in Europe and Asia, while RIM, HTC, LG Electronics and Nokia have also engaged in a number of cases, revealed the sources, noting that RIM has led rivals in establishing ties with the business sector for NFC applications.

HTC has recently launched three NFC-enabled models, the HTC Desire C, One XC and One X (16G-version), in cooperation with China Merchants Bank, supporting electronic wallet functionality launched by China UnionPay as well as payment systems of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, the sources commented.