Apple has announced plans to accept NFC payments in its stores very soon.

Employees at Apple will receive card readers provided by VeriFone Systems that will allow them to accept chip-and-PIN payments.

An installed NFC reader will let workers and customers exchange information at the point of sale.

Apple products do not currently support NFC capabilities and the new roll-out is unlikely to change that. EasyPay is Apple’s signature mobile payment application which takes EMV chip-and-PIN, as well as mag-stripe payments.

Payments made from Apple gift cards that are loaded into a customers iPhone or iPad are also accepted thanks to an update to EasyPay in 2012.

Near Field Communication, the ability to send and receive data by proximity alone, has been around for a while but its application as a payment method is relatively new.

The technology has already been implemented in places like urban metro systems while mobile wallets make it readily available to the public.

While iPhones do not support NFC right out of the box, mobile wallet provider, Isis, adds NFC capabilities to iPhones with its Incipio Cashwrap sleeve.

Apple may be targeting a more elegant payment system of their own through Bluetooth low energy “iBeacons,” which have been enabled in their US stores for push notifications and location tracking.

There hasn’t been any solid evidence whether or not Apple will incorporate NFC, but whatever technology they go with (or don’t go with) will have a profound impact on mobile payments.