“Ever since Apple introduced the Passbook – a neat app that allows consumers to store loyalty cards, tickets, gift cards and passes on their iPhones – talk has heated up about exactly when the tech giant will enter the field of mobile payments,” Amanda Alix writes for The Motley Fool.
“This year is no different, and the conjecture has begun as to whether Apple will include Near Field Communication technology, which would allow iPhone users to make mobile payments to merchants who use NFC, in the iPhone 6,” Alix writes. “Apple, as usual, is silent on the issue.”
“The company’s 600 million iTunes account users has long been seen as a starting point for any movement toward a mobile payments platform,” Alix writes. “If NFC isn’t part of the picture, a viable alternative would be for Apple to position itself as a direct competitor to eBay’s PayPal. The talks with industry executives to which The WSJ referred might be a plan to partner with retailers and other vendors, much as PayPal has done with big-box stores and other retailers. In addition to these discussions, Apple has tapped one of its own executives to create a payments division within the company.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple seems to be preparing to invade the mobile payments space – February 28, 2014
Bypassing the credit card: Apple patent application reveals major financial system beyond iWallet – January 30, 2014
PayPal wants to partner with Apple in mobile payments, sources say – January 30, 2014
iWallet: Apple exploring expansion of mobile payments, sources say – January 25, 2014
Apple patent application reveals secure iWallet system with iBeacon – January 16, 2014
Apple’s revolutionary iWallet is coming – December 10, 2013
Apple could have 250 million iBeacon-capable units in the wild by 2014 – December 7, 2013
Apple turns on iBeacon to guide shoppers at 254 U.S. retail stores – December 6, 2013
Analyst: Apple to reach 600 million users with credit card accounts on file by year end – June 4, 2013
No, not in the way the media keeps crying about. Apple will do something that benefits it’s users.
With more than 1/2 billion customers on file, Apple already is a BANK.
Bank on it.
There will be no NFC. To do so requires the vast majority of retailers to buy additional hardware, plus Apple would have to include NFC chips (which would constantly be using power) to be added to the already crowded space in the iPhone.
NFC = Not Freaking Coming!
Apple will use Bluetooth/WiFi/Barcode generation for mobile payments.
Absolutely they would need to have included NFC for a least a year to make such a launch viable, it’s clear they are not interested in the tech passbook and Bluetooth are their answer to this and is far more flexible and growable tech to exploit.
The Bluetooth 4.0 spec more than adequately replaces NFC. The fact that iOS 7.1 included an ability for apps that use Bluetooth to register with the OS so that the app doesn’t need to be open in order for NFC-like communication to occur is HUGE!
I saw on the news this morning about a Swedish payment system that uses hand scanning. That looked very promising.