>The interesting thing is going to be whether Apple decides to invent their own standard here
The thing to keep in mind here is that NFC requires interoperability to be useful. Not only that, but Sony and NXPI (Philips' semiconductor spin out) own all the related NFC intellectual property (NXPI supplies the IC in the Nexus NFC-enabled phone). So, Apple is free to innovate at a UX level, but the low-level implementation will be based on the NXPI ASIC.
> The thing to keep in mind here is that NFC requires interoperability to be useful.
You could say the same thing about facetime, iMessage or airplay or other things Apple has released. Apple seems to be quite satisfied with improving the experience of people who live only in their ecosystem while leaving others out, even at times to their own detriment. I think they have enough power to pull off exclusive deals with enough financial institutions and retailers to get their own tech deployed into a lot of stores. So I don't really buy that they can't go their own way on this.
The thing to keep in mind here is that NFC requires interoperability to be useful. Not only that, but Sony and NXPI (Philips' semiconductor spin out) own all the related NFC intellectual property (NXPI supplies the IC in the Nexus NFC-enabled phone). So, Apple is free to innovate at a UX level, but the low-level implementation will be based on the NXPI ASIC.