Apple Confirms iPhone 6 NFC Chip is Locked to Apple Pay

Super keen to pick up Apple’s latest iPhone? We’ve got some rather bad news for you. The company today confirmed that the NFC chip found within its latest handsets is locked to Apple Pay – meaning that if you’ve ever dreamt of pairing your new iPhone with a set of NFC speakers or charging system you’re all out of luck. The company thus far has declined to comment on any future plans for the chip – and as always with anything Apple locks down, don’t expect to hear things changing any time soon.

NFC holds the capacity for a number of innovative uses, everything from wireless charging stations, launching applications, sharing data and files and even seamless playback via NFC speaker systems. Apple in the past has always opted for a Bluetooth approach to wireless connectivity with peripherals – however it’s disappointing to see the NFC chip found inside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus being restricted so heavily from users. The only positive light from all of this is that the NXP-manufactured NFC chip that ships within the devices is indeed capable of providing open access to other NFC enabled devices – Apple’s just opted to lock that function down. Hopefully Apple will open things up in the future.

Image courtesy of AppleInsider.

Thanks to CNET for providing us with this information.