Apple opens up iPhone NFC in iOS 18.1 even to developers outside the EU

Apple has recently been forced by the European Commission to open up the iPhones' NFC functionality to third parties, paving the way for mobile payments that don't involve Apple's own wallet.

Now, the company has uncharacteristically taken things one step forward, by announcing that it will open up NFC for third party developers located outside of the EU. This will happen "in an upcoming developer seed for iOS 18.1".

There are, however, as is almost always the case with Apple, caveats. First, only developers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and the US will initially qualify (on top of those from the EU), with "additional locations to follow". Second, this won't be free.

Apple being Apple means it will request fees from interested developers - this opening up doesn't mean anyone in the aforementioned countries will just be able to create whatever app with NFC functionality they want, because "users' security and privacy is of the utmost importance to Apple", the company itself proudly boasts.

So, to make all of this work, developers will first have to enter into a commercial agreement with Apple, request "the NFC and SE (Secure Element) entitlement", and then "pay the associated fees" (which have not been detailed by the company as of yet).

To conclude, NFC on iPhones is getting much more flexible than it ever was, but despite all of this newfound openness on Apple's part, it still won't be as open as it is on Android. Big surprise, right?

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