Apple’s new Passbook app for iOS6, unveiled at the firm’s WWDC developer conference, readies the ground for the iPhone 5 to be used as an electronic wallet, according to industry analysts.

The new app was pitched by Apple executives on Monday as a user-friendly holder for electronic cinema tickets, boarding passes and Starbucks vouchers, all of which use barcodes on-screen. The iPhone will detect if you're at the airport, for instance, and fish out the relevant electronic documents.

“Passbook takes all of these passes and combines them together in one place, and integrates it right into the OS, and they are beautiful,” said Scott Forstall, the man in charge of iOS and tipped as future leader of Apple.
But observers said such examples are merely a prelude to Passbook and the next iPhone acting as a fully-fledged electronic wallet, probably with “wave and pay” technology built in.
Apple’s main smartphone manufacturing rival, Samsung, has already included the necessary hardware – a Near Field Communications (NFC) chip – into its latest flagship, the Galaxy SIII. In the United States Google is promoting its own app and in-store system to enable consumers to pay by waving their smartphone at the till, Google Wallet.
For now, Apple may seem behind in developing what could become a very lucrative new source of revenue for the smartphone industry, but an iPhone capable of replacing credit and debit cards has long been anticipated. Apple hired Benjamin Vigier, a well-known expert in NFC in 2010, as its head of “mobile commerce”.