Several months back, when spring was just turning to summer, the rumors surrounding the iPhone 5 made it seem like NFC support would be just as likely as LTE or a bigger display. More recently, though, rumors have been backing away from any outright claims of NFC compatibility; what’s really the case? We’ll know for sure in just a few hours, but for now one last rumor is on the table, and this one’s back to considering NFC to be relatively likely.

Will Strafach (aka Chronic) has been tweeting that he’s pretty convinced iPhone 5 hardware will support NFC. He’s basing this on earlier EVT (Engineering Verification Test) designs of the iPhone 5, which he reports had the ability to communicate over NFC. While it’s possible Apple would strip the ability from the commercially-released model, Strafach considers such a move unlikely.

What might be possible, though, is that Apple could leave the NFC-driving hardware in place, as part of a larger chipset, but disable it either in software, or by not supplying the needed antenna. Why would Apple do such a thing? We can’t say, but it’s not outside the realm of possibilities.

Any last-minute guesses as to the ultimate fate of NFC in the new iPhone?

Source: Will Strafach (Twitter)
Via: 9to5 Mac