iPhone News Updated

iPhone 5 Rumor: Apple Partnering with MasterCard/PayPass to Bring NFC Technology in Next iPhone

With the existing iPhone 4S already has become three months old now, the rumors surrounding Apple’s future products, especially iPhone 5 and iPad 3, has started gaining momentum.

Adding to the rumor mill, a recent report published in 9to5Mac suggested that Apple’s next generation iPhone would feature near field communication or NFC technology.

The report was based on a conversation between one of their reporters and “a well-connected developer” at the recent Macworld convention. According to the report, the developer claimed to be building an application that includes the ability to process mobile transactions using the NFC technology.

Although the developer didn’t give any information about the specification of any new hardware release, he told 9to5Mac that he did speak to Apple iOS engineers many times, and they are “heavy into NFC.”

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iPhone Buyers Hit Redial

The record quarterly sales Apple announced Tuesday night were boosted in a big way by repeat customers – existing iPhone owners accounted for 43% of all sales of the new iPhone 4S, according to new research. And many recouped much of the cost by selling their older models.

Only 36% of iPhone 4S buyers switched from a rival smartphone operating system, while 43% upgraded from an older iPhone, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. Among those who bought in the first few weeks after the launch, about 70% were iPhone upgraders, says Michael Levin, a co-founder of the firm. In fact, in October and November, Apple claimed the top three spots among the top 10 smartphone models sold with the 4S, iPhone 4, and 3GS, according to research by the NPD Group, a market research firm. And consumers are clearly willing to play along with the upgrade cycle: About half of new smartphone buyers had owned their previous phone for two years or less, according to NPD Group.

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