An Apple Pay rewards program may just be around the corner, with a freshly published report suggesting that it could see an announcement next month at WWDC 2015.
The rewards program for Apple Pay has been giving the October 2015 launch date according to a freshly published report, but then there was also the excitement that Apple may just launch the program during the Christmas holiday season, but that obviously did not work out. Now with a chance being that the program could be unveiled this June at WWDC, that October 2015 date does seem pretty accurate and it was earlier expected that Apple will also be introducing a revamped Apple Pay 2.0 as well, perhaps this would be it, but of course further improvements can be packed in as well.
The specifics of how the rewards program will work are not available as yet, with guesses being the best bet for now. That said, Apple had shown some interest in acquiring Clinkle, which is a mobile payment startup company that has had an unfortunate run. Meanwhile in the world of competing services offering a rewards program, CurrentC – a mobile payment service – allows users to add in their debit and reward cards to the payment service, unlike Apple, which requires everything to sit in the Passbook app. CurrentC offers a more seamless integration of payment and rewards cards.
According to the report, Apple is also looking at bringing in a cash-back program as part of Apple Pay’s reward system, but as always, these details cannot be confirmed.
In extension to Apple Pay, Target is reportedly looking at options to support the Apple branded payment service as well. Speaking at the Code Conference, CEO Brain Cornell said that he had met with Tim Cook to explore the possibility, but expressed his need to focus on “getting chip-and-PIN in place in time for the holidays” across all the stores, and with that done, the company will look to support Apple Pay.
We have a few more days to go until WWDC 2015 kicks off. And we’ll know for sure in the opening keynote what plans the company has for its mobile payment system – Apple Pay.
(Source: NYT)
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