Tuesday’s Apple Rumors — Pay Later

Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Tuesday:

No NFC: A story at Business Insider says consumers won’t be tapping the next iPhone against panels at check-out counters for a quick and easy transaction. While numerous outlets have suggested that what is called near field communication technology, which would allow instant payments at retail stores, would be a key feature in the next iPhone, research group Bernstein now says Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) won’t include the chip. New rumors suggest that Apple will first release a transitional iPhone, which will bring the handheld to Sprint (NYSE:S) and T-Mobile’s networks in the U.S. If that phone foregoes the technology, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it in the next fully upgraded iPhone in 2012..

Apple Store Turns 10: The Boy Genius Report said Monday that Apple is gearing up for a surprise event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the company’s retail chain. It’s unclear whether this big event would be a massive sale of all Apple products at the retail chain or even the announcement of a brand new Apple product, possibly the iCloud music service. Both Apple Insider and Mac Stories have published reports in recent weeks suggesting that Apple Store employees have been told to “prioritize” working this upcoming weekend. Whatever shape the event takes, Apple should see a nice sales spike in the middle of the sales quarter.

Get “Less Crappy”: Nike’s (NYSE:NKE) CEO Mark Parker called Apple CEO Steve Jobs shortly after taking his position with the athletic gear empire, looking for advice. As related by a recent Forbes story, Jobs’ advice to Parker on how to run Nike was simple: “Just get rid of the crappy stuff.” The Apple boss’ take on Nike was that it made something that consumers wanted, but it also made a lot of garbage, and the company would be far better off just making the quality products. “He was absolutely right. We had to edit,” said Parker. Seeing as Nike’s stock has grown more than 100% since Parker was named CEO in 2006, it would seem that the advice was sound.

As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at�@ajohnagnello�and�become a fan of�InvestorPlace on Facebook.