N9 will never be able to do NFC payments. It is missing critical hardware component called ‘single wire protocol’, which is required for payment security. Nokia hopes instead to use the N9 to introduce NFC and make users aware of its existence and features. One way they are doing this is through the game Angry Birds Magic (packed on the device) which forces you to tap on other N9 to unlock levels.

All of Nokia’s future NFC phones will support payment.

The N9 ships with Bluetooth 2.1 but 4.0 is planned as an update. The update will allow NFC sharing to piggyback over Wifi (through the Bluetooth High Speed protocol).