iFxit’s tear down has revealed the hidden chip about which Apple had remained silent
The iPad Air 2 has already made its way to the consumers’ hands and now it was time for iFixit to have their part of the fun. So they got an iPad Air 2 and did what they always do best with such products; they tore it down to reveal everything inside. This tear down procedure has revealed something which has shocked us all; the iPad Air 2 houses an NFC Controller, model number NXP 65V10, which is the same chip that’s in the iPhone 6. This is surprising because Apple remained silent (whether intentionally or not) about this little NFC secret inside the iPad and no such thing was mentioned while the tablet was being announced.
We are also surprised for one more reason which appears to be that we currently don’t see any good use for this NFC chip. We do know however that the iPad Air 2 comes with support for Apple Pay but it is only for online shopping so it is unlikely that you would ever catch someone tapping at their iPads at Walgreens on McDonalds. The in-store Apple Pay hasn’t been brought to the iPad by Apple but this might become possible someday if we try to speculate the reason behind this hidden NFC chip. But we are still of the view that it would look really silly if we were to use iPads for payments at stores; even more so than using the as cameras.
This is just an idea and Apple actually might not have put the NFC chip in there for this purpose. Apple Pay currently suffers from a big drawback that it is only so far available at big chain stores and restaurants. However this phenomenon has a scope for improvement and now even small businesses have been using iPads and we see iPads installed in even small shops.
source: gigaom
You Might Also Like
