news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

According to Fast Technology on August 15, although iOS 18 lacks appeal, Apple suddenly announced a major news-iOS 18.1 will open NFC.

This is the first time in Apple's history that subsequent developers can call new NFC and SE (secure element) APIs to allow third-party applications to call NFC. This means that Alipay NFC payment, car keys, access cards, and hotel door cards can all be realized, and even electronic ID cards will be supported in the future.

The most important thing is that Apple does not restrict regions like it does with the open App Store.It can be used by users all over the world, and iPhone users in China can also experience it.

What is NFC?

NFC is the abbreviation of Near Field Communication, which is short-range wireless communication technology.

NFC, jointly developed by Philips and Sony, is a contactless identification and interconnection technology that enables short-range wireless communication between mobile devices, consumer electronics, PCs and smart control tools.

As long as the coil parts of the devices are close to each other, the two can exchange data to achieve functions such as mobile payment, ticket recognition, and anti-counterfeiting authentication.

What is the use of NFC after it is opened?

Although Apple has made NFC function standard for all iPhones since the iPhone 6 series in 2014, it has only supported internal system calls and could only realize system-provided functions such as card swiping, and the scenarios are very limited.

Android phones not only support card swiping, but also realize access control cards, electronic ticketing, identity recognition and other functions. Even thousand-yuan phones can be standardly equipped. Especially now that most communities have access control cards, the simulated access card function can completely say goodbye to the trouble of physical keys.

Therefore, in the past, iPhone users were very envious of Android users, and after waiting for many years, they can finally realize their dream.

According to Apple's official statement, after NFC is opened, it can be used for in-store payments, car keys, closed-loop public transportation, corporate ID cards, student ID cards, home keys, hotel keys, merchant points and rewards cards, and even event tickets.

Among them, the application of functions such as access cards and student cards alone is enough to greatly improve the daily experience and make it more convenient.

Behind the closed ecosystem are businesses that can’t be cut off

In fact, users have been calling for opening up NFC for many years, but Apple has always refused to give in, citing security issues as the reason. It claims that there will be inevitable risks after opening it up, including privacy leaks, etc. But fundamentally, Apple still wants to firmly maintain its own closed ecosystem.

Although NFC was not directly opened in the past few years, there were actually many partner manufacturers that could call on it, such as the hotel room cards that had been launched before, and some domestically supported transportation cards.

All of these platforms that complete payments through NFC need to pay Apple a 0.15% commission. Just like MFi data cables, there is a huge chain of interests behind it that allows Apple to make money without doing anything.

Therefore, the reason why iPhone does not open NFC is not because of Apple’s technical limitations or the so-called privacy protection, but because the cash cow behind it cannot be cut off.

Institutions of various countries are working together to crack down on Apple's failure to unlock the closed ecosystem

In fact, Apple's complete opening of NFC this time did not surprise the industry. After all, the EU has been constantly putting pressure on Apple by issuing antitrust regulations.

Two years ago, the European Commission accused Apple of preventing other mobile payment app developers from using its "tap and pay" technology, also known as near-field communication (NFC) technology, thereby hindering competition with the Apple Pay mobile wallet.

In early 2024, Apple was even fined 1.84 billion euros (about 14.39 billion yuan) for abusing its dominant position and hindering competition from Spotify and other competitors through App Store restrictions. This was the first time the company had ever been punished by the EU for antitrust violations.

After years of antitrust pressure from the European Union, Apple finally reached an agreement with the European Union in July, agreeing to open its NFC mobile payment technology to third parties for free.

If Apple fails to comply with the agreement, it could face fines of up to 10% of its annual global revenue.

In addition, the EU also forced Apple to open its App Store and to unify the USB-C interface. Speaking of this, we have to say that the EU is really good at regulating Apple.

In addition to the EU, many other countries and institutions are constantly conducting antitrust investigations and sanctions on Apple. For example, Japan is about to follow the EU's example and force Apple to sideload third-party applications.

From changing the USB-C interface, allowing third-party application sideloading, to now opening NFC, Apple is currently being pressed step by step and gradually unlocking its originally closed ecosystem.

This undoubtedly has more advantages than disadvantages for users, as it gives everyone more choices. I hope that in the future the domestic version will also have the opportunity to use third-party application sideloading.