Now, pay by just waving your iPhone?

iPhone, which has already replaced digital cameras, MP3 players and portable game consoles for most owners, could be about to replace your wallet. The next iPhone is expected to come with a built-in chip which can serve as...

iPhone, which has already replaced digital cameras, MP3 players and portable game consoles for most owners, could be about to replace your wallet.

The next iPhone, which is believed to launch in just two weeks time, is expected to come with a built-in chip which can serve as your credit or debit card for small payments.

Tech savvies looking at leaked images of the internals of the device have spotted what they believe is an NFC chip within the phone.

NFC is seen as the successor to the chip-and-pin, serving as a small contactless card that can be waved against scanners at tills to automate a payment, the Daily Mail reported.

Some debit cards already have this feature installed, and certain retailers such as Pret a Manger already use this technology.

Other phones have come with in-built NFC, with Google making a big play for the market with its ''Wallet'' accounts in the United States.

According to 9to5Mac, which has credible sources within Apple, "Apple could tie in with a payment processor like Citibank's PayPass system for credit card transactions - or it could become a payment processor of sorts with its hundreds of millions of credit cards already on file at iTunes."