So, did you see what wasn’t announced by Apple? That’s right, while the new iPhone (the 4S) comes with a new faster processor, likely more memory, and a rather nifty voice recognition system that leverages the cloud for processing and parsing your questions, it is missing something that many of us were expecting.

NFC.

The lack of near field communications could be down to practical hardware reasons (the late inclusion of a micro-SIM card might have used the physical space and power that NFC would have needed), or that Apple haven’t managed to crack a mobile money system that has a beautiful simplicity so it continues to be iterated in private till it “just works”.

No matter the reason, everyone in the space has another six months to a year to work on mobile money projects before the iGorilla enters the room. That means Google and the Android handset manufactures can work away with their NFC solution using Google Wallet. Paypal can continue to push their non-hardware specific alternative. That means there’s little chance of an alternative technology taking the PR inches out of the London Olympics and the contactless payment trials going ahead.

It doesn’t mean that Apple are not going to come into the game, but it does mean that they will be coming into a more mature market, with established rules of thumb and operational procedures. It means that awareness and attempts at other pervasive systems can continue and grow.

And everyone knows they’re against the clock to get it right before the iPhone shows its hand.