Apple has hired an expert in near field communication from a company that specialises in mobile payments.
Benjamin Vigier joins as Product Manager – Mobile Commerce, and though Apple won’t disclose what he will be working on, recent patent registrations suggest the company is looking to add mobile payments to the capabilities of its iOS devices.
Near field communication (NFC) is short-range wireless technology which enables the exchange of data between devices over about a 10cm distance. Vigier has been working in the field since 2004, most recently at mFoundry where he led the development mobile payment systems for companies including PayPal and Starbucks.
Patents that Apple has registered in the past few months describe, among other things, systems for making payments using an iPhone, digital tickets and airline boarding passes, and short-range file transfer between devices.
