Two major events occurred in September 2013 affecting the mobile payments ecosystem-Google's expansion of its Wallet app to non-NFC smartphone users and Apple's reveal of the iPhones 5S and 5C.

Both of these events appeared to move the vision of a mobile payments future based on NFC (near field communication) further from reality. However, when examined more closely, these moves align with each company's near-term strategies, while NFC still has several key advantages that will keep it viable in this very early but rapidly developing market for mobile payments.

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