iPhone 5’s lack of NFC called ‘a serious blow for the technology’

Phil Schiller, Apple’s (AAPL) senior vice president of worldwide marketing has said before that the iPhone 5 doesn’t have NFC because “it’s not clear that NFC is the solution to any current problem.” While most Android smartphones happily tout that NFC’s wireless capabilities are the future of mobile payments, Juniper Research analyst Dr. Windsor Holden wrote in his latest report that NFC growth will slow from the previously forecasted $180 billion industry by 2017 to $110 billion. Holden pins his projections for NFC’s slower growth on Apple’s failure to include NFC in its iPhone 5. He says the company’s decision is “a serious blow for the technology” and that it will be “even more difficult to persuade consumers – and retailers – to embrace what amounts to a wholly new means of payment.” Juniper Research is projecting that North America and Western Europe will have a “two-year lag” in growth based on the lower rate of NFC adoption in point of sale systems.