As usual I love your analysis Karen. With NFC there appears to still be a big chicken and egg problem. Especially since NFC seems to be left on the wayside road and not being picked up because there's really little reason to do so. EMV is being universally shipped in new terminals and NFC is being wrought 'Not For Commerce.' Apple could change that, but why would they want to fight an uphill battle with merchant adoption? Unless they offered merchants and "iNFC" peripheral? With beacons there is much more versatility and reasons for merchants to adopt. Thus beacon eggs are more likely to hatch. Karen I also like your repeated mantra regarding Apple and their ecosystem 'Apple control tech and revenues.'

My big prediction is that Apple could follow PayPal with their own payment beacon device. As I've said before "Beacon is the new Bacon" in mobile commerce. Will we see the introduction of a whole new "icommerce" ecosystem?

I still have serious doubts that Apple will add NFC, but see HCE and pushing along by Visa as being key swing factors if they do. There is a war brewing out there that could possibly redirect payment processing directly through Visa from the iphone 6, thus becoming the gateway and processor. I do firmly believe that Apple will finally enter the payments game for real this fall. I will soon write a more in depth article on the state of mobile payments prior to Money2020 in September. Plus be sure to follow my site as I'll soon be announcing new tech that will change identity theft prevention and payments forever. Yeah I know big bold statements. I may be over the top, but I may not. I have the freedom to publish that requires zero partnerships, only knowledge and time. Any companies interested in securing my talents before I disrupt, please reach out to hire me. God bless!