“Apple is working with Dutch chipmaker NXP to add secure short-range wireless technology into the next iPhone, enabling new pay-by-touch capabilities in the latest bid for the smartphone to replace the wallet,” Tim Bradshaw, Sarah Mishkin, and Daniel Thomas report for The Financial Times.
“Several people familiar with Apple’s plans say NXP will provide the secure near-field communications chips that will allow an iPhone to connect with payment terminals or ticketing systems, as well as opening up the possibility for other applications in the ‘internet of things,'” Bradshaw, Mishkin, and Thomas report. “Analysts say Apple could galvanise a smartphone payments market that has struggled to take off, even though tap-to-pay technology has been built into mobile devices for eight years.”
“Thanks to iTunes and the App Store, Apple already holds credit card details for some 800m customers, giving it a potential advantage over the many earlier attempts at mobile payments,” Bradshaw, Mishkin, and Thomas report. “It has been recruiting executives with experience in mobile payments for the last several months in both Europe and the US.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple’s ‘iPhone 6′ will include NFC mobile payments, sources say – August 28, 2014
More evidence of NFC support for both iPhone 6 models – August 27, 2014
Schematic suggests NFC chip in ‘iPhone 6,’ amount of RAM remains unknown – August 18, 2014
Apple’s iPhone 6 line will sport new A8 chip, faster Wi-Fi, improved Touch ID, and NFC – August 6, 2014
NFC, wireless charging, improved LTE rumored for Apple’s ‘iPhone 6′ – June 9, 2014
Apple patent reveals new iPhone antenna that adds NFC – May 22, 2014
“even though tap-to-pay technology has been built into mobile devices for eight years.”
Unfortunately, they were in phones for people who don’t like to pay for things.
I, for one, hope that this is yet another area where Apple wait to do, but then do it right. NFC is too insecure in its current form, a perfect fit with certain ‘open’ ecosystems.
Totally agree, they rightly were not interested in this when it was a stand alone mix and match set up that would have conflicted with their iBeacon plans. Now they will simply include it out of necessity and convenience as part of a far bigger move that absorbs the technology as with iBeacon and bluetooth without actually promoting it as an entity in its own right. It will just work seamlessly and conveniently as and when needed as part of their bigger picture payment and authentation scheme.
“Analysts say Apple could galvanise a smartphone payments market that has struggled to take off, even though tap-to-pay technology has been built into mobile devices for eight years.”
That is is *perfect* opportunity for Apple to come in and do it right, which will move the market forward by a huge leap.
Why be hobbled to a technology that is not going anywhere? Apple already has Bluetooth (including Bluetooth LE) in their current phones. Why not just extend the protocols to use Bluetooth LE for payments too? It would be a simple software change (in iOS) for current phones and the new phones could be optimized for it.
Adding another chip with its associated power draw does not make sense to me. Apple could do it, but why? The argument that an implementation already exists and Apple needs to be like everyone else does not hold up when that current implementation is badly floundering.
So you don’t want them to be able to take advantage of a large and growing system of payments used throughout the World be it in cards (specialist and credit/debit) which won’t in the foreseeable future if at all be based on a bluetooth system as much as anything because the basic need is actually far simpler than bluetooth can provide. In fact the superior abilities of bluetooth would be a disadvantage in many cases because there is far more danger it will activate where it isn’t desired and as such it really needs to work with the fingerprint sensor especially where payment is concerned. Pre paid entry to a bus for example would therefore be actually more inconvenient than simply touching your card.
I think Apple will absorb both systems as seamlessly as possible using their strengths where most applicable and/or where the terminal itself dictates. Makes sense to me.
Tapping a payment terminal with your $600 iPhone versus a $5 plastic chip card does not constitute a payment revolution. What will change payments? When (1) you no longer have to stand in a check out line to pay, (2) a record of the transaction is stored on your device or the cloud eliminating the use of paper receipts, (3) the payment process is secure and no personal data is transmitted wirelessly and (4) there are no arbitrary limits on the maximum size of the transaction.