Will the iPhone become Your iWallet?

A collection of recently published patents and a new hire at Apple suggest that future iPhones may carry built-in features to replace your credit cards.

Apple recently hired Benjamin Vigier as a product manager for mobile commerce. He’s an expert in near field communication (NFC), a technology that enables devices to exchange information wirelessly over very short distances. It’s the kind of technology that credit card companies have been touting (without much success) recently, where instead of swiping a credit card, you just wave a card or key fob in front of a reader. According to his LinkedIn profile, Vigier formerly directed and developed mobile payment solutions for PayPal and Starbucks.

In addition, Apple in recent months published several patent applications that portray NFC-based hardware and software features utilizing mobile payments for concerts, sports venues, airline ticketing and more.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.