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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

NFC Times Exclusive: Apple’s decision to exclude tag-reading functionality from its forthcoming NFC-enabled iPhones has caused disappointment among suppliers of tags and developers of tag applications, who told NFC Times they believe the omission could confuse consumers and potentially hamper tag-marketing campaigns.

Apple, as predicted, is taking the NFC plunge, adopting the technology in its next iPhones and Apple Watch to enable a mobile-payments service, Apple Pay, and disclosing partnerships with the three largest U.S. payment networks, issuers representing more than 80% of U.S. credit card volume and major national merchants.

NFC Times Exclusive: Apple’s scheduled announcement Tuesday of its next iPhone is expected to make it the last and also the most prominent of the major smartphone makers to adopt NFC.

NXP Semiconductors said sales in its emerging ID business–mainly made up of its NFC chips–increased by 22% in the second quarter, compared with the first quarter, and CEO Richard Clemmer insisted the chip maker’s secure element business would continue to remain a strong contributor.

Russian Standard Bank launched its long-planned NFC-payments service on embedded chips in Samsung NFC devices, under an earlier partnership deal between Samsung Electronics and MasterCard Worldwide.

U.S.-based point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone has confirmed reports that its EMV- and NFC-enabled mobile POS attachment for the iPhone 5s is being deployed by Apple for its employees to use to accept card payments in its retail stores.

Isis telco AT&T is making the first NFC-enabled cases for the iPhone available for use with the Isis Mobile Wallet this week, a move expected to be followed by Verizon Wireless soon.

Apple’s decision to again pass on NFC technology for its latest iPhones was not unexpected, and the industry will move on, NFC industry sources told NFC Times.