Apple has announced a new iPhone model which will offer faster processing, an improved battery life, better camera and a voice-recognition feature called Siri to differentiate it from the current iPhone 4 but the company made no mention of NFC technology or mobile payment services.  Speculation that the new handset, which is called the iPhone 4S, would include NFC has slackened off in recent months. In fact, there was greater anticipation that the iPhone 4, which was introduced in June 2010, would include NFC technology.

Certainly the likelihood of an iPhone running NFC has tailed off since the start of the year. Apple has started to sell the Square card reader which is a dongle that is fitted onto an iPhone or iPad so that the device can accept payments and does not require NFC technology. In other respects, Apple’s announcement did not wow observers because of the absence of any news about an iPhone 5. The new handset is a more modest upgrade of the existing iPhone 4.  As part of the same announcement, the company said the fifth full version of its iOS operating system would be available from October 12. The new iPhone 4S will be available from October 14.