{"id":95,"date":"2012-09-18T00:39:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T00:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/?p=95"},"modified":"2020-08-07T03:22:49","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T03:22:49","slug":"utility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/2012\/09\/18\/utility\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology vs. Utility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the press embargo on iPhone 5 lifted, we\u2019re finally hearing about the product from people who have actually held and used it. Before that, and still after, both positive and negative media impressions have been unable to resist mentioning the bogeyman known as\u00a0near field communication (NFC<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\u00a0ReadWriteWeb\u2019s Brian Proffitt<\/a>\u00a0explained last week, omitting NFC is a conscious decision that can be easily reversed in the future. But unlike earlier missing iOS features like copy-and-paste, multitasking, and yes, an SDK, NFC is far from a no-brainer addition to Apple\u2019s flagship product. Critics are stuck in the usual mud of tracking\u00a0technology<\/em>\u00a0rather than\u00a0utility<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s no coincidence that the \u201cTech Specs\u201d link atop\u00a0apple.com\/iphone<\/a>\u00a0is dead last.\u00a0Apple\u2019s best marketing has always been about what a product\u00a0does<\/em>, not what it\u00a0has<\/em>. Forget MHz and GB and mAh \u2014 how much faster does it launch apps? Play games? Snap pictures? Load web pages? How many hours of video and talk time? These are things that anyone can not only understand, but\u00a0appreciate<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behold the NFC issue. What can people do with it today<\/em>? All we hear is what they should<\/em> be able to do with it someday<\/em>. Search the web for \u201cnear field communication\u201d \u2014 the 2010 articles read exactly like the 2012 articles. And boy are they wordy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not the technology that matters \u2014 it\u2019s the utility that the technology provides. There are plenty of solutions to the mobile payments problem. NFC has not delivered, and Apple has no incentive to change that. By shipping NFC in the current climate, Apple would implicitly take responsibility for making that technology<\/em> a success. That means not just building a first-class iOS experience, but working with businesses to accelerate adoption around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for what? If Apple leads this charge, rounding up vendors and merchants like it did the music companies, how much more attractive will iPhones suddenly be? On the contrary, carrying the NFC torch would likely help Android as much as iOS. If NFC does in fact take off, then Apple will add it, and the debate will be over. More\u00a0low-ha<\/a>nging fruit\u00a0off the tree. If it does not take off, then Apple remains flexible (ahead?) in solving the utility\u00a0problems t<\/a>hat this one\u00a0technology failed to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where Apple\u2019s market dominance becomes so important. The truth is that NFC won\u2019t take off without Apple \u2014 at least not nearly as quickly as it would with Apple. So the critics\u2019 \u201cdisappointment\u201d is in fact just a sad realization that the elusive NFC promise is at least one more year away from being kept. In the meantime, Apple keeps solving real problems it knows it can solve right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the press embargo on iPhone 5 lifted, we\u2019re finally hearing about the product from people who have actually held and used it. Before that, and still after, both positive and negative media impressions have been unable to resist mentioning the bogeyman known as\u00a0near field communication (NFC). As\u00a0ReadWriteWeb\u2019s Brian Proffitt\u00a0explained last week, omitting NFC is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}