It's that time of the year again. Just a few more days to go. Less than a week, actually. October 4th to be precise.

What? You haven't guessed it yet?

Time for a new Apple product launch my dear!

It's clear that the major topic will be the iPhone 5. Will it be a souped-up version of the iPhone 4 or will it be an all-new one that's faster, better, sleeker, cooler? There are a lot of rumours about it but I'll go for the latter. Those iPhone accessory producers need to stay in business, right? And you don't want to show off to your mates a phone that looks the same as theirs, right?

Anyway, this is not really what I wanted to talk about. What I'm more interested to know is what the usual "one more thing" will be. Steve Jobs has done it for years: get your audience excited about the main thing you’re unveiling, then overwhelm and delight them with a whole other product out of left field. Will Tim Cook be up to the mark?

What if it is NFC?

Again a lot of rumours have been circulating about this topic. Many analysts citing that it won't happen because Apple doesn't think there's a mature industry standard yet. Right, and since when does Apple give a damn about standards? Really, now that Google is in cahoots with Visa to boost their mobile payments offering isn't it time for Apple to make a move?

So what do we need to make this happen? A ubiquitous payment system supporting more than 100 million users across the world? Got it: iTunes. A user friendly, always on, handheld electronic wallet equipped with an NFC chip? Got it: the iPhone 5. An easy to use, easy to deploy point of sales terminal? Aha, this looks like a missing piece to the puzzle...

Anyway, it’s unlikely that this is what it will be, because when Apple will step into the NFC arena they will do it their way and change the rules for everyone along the way. And when this happens, it could transform Apple from the biggest technology company in the world, to the biggest company in the world, period.

Pending the outcome on October 4th, don’t hesitate to let me know what you think will be that “one more thing” ...