“Reports noted earlier this week that Apple is planning to embed Near-Field Communications (NFC) technology into its next-generation iPhones and iPads,” Vijayan reports. “If the products were NFC-enabled, users would be able to pay for purchases just by waving their iPads or iPhones near retailers’ payment terminals.”
“Similar contactless payment technologies have been around for years, but they’ve only received a lukewarm reception, at best, from consumers,” Vijayan reports. “What’s likely to make Apple’s offering vastly different, however, is the company’s huge base of 160 million iTunes users, said Avivah Litan an analyst at Gartner.”
Vijayan reports, “That base gives Apple the ability to operate largely as a ‘closed payment system’ with minimal need to interface with credit card companies and banks, she said. ‘They can largely shut out credit card companies if they choose to,’ and operate in much the same way that PayPal has done in the virtual world, she said… ‘I see Apple as being a PayPal on steroids,’ Litan said.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
For this to work, Apple would need to at least match the card-holder bonus of the typical rewards card (currently about 1%). Without this, there’d be little incentive for a rewards card-holder to use an iPhone to make a purchase (other than convenience).