If you’ve ever wanted to buy your favorite beverage using just your iPhone then you may be a step close to that reality after new reports appeared earlier that have Apple and major payment firms doing deals to bring mobile payments to iOS.
With all the talk about Apple potentially adding NFC to every iPhone ever released, it’s easy to forget that making mobile payments work isn’t simply a case of slapping a chip into a phone and letting people tap things with it.
Like any form of payment, Apple’s implementation of NFC based mobile payments would need the likes of American Express, VISA and MasterCard on board as well as others. Even with iTunes and all of its registered credit cards behind it, Apple doesn’t want to be a bank.
Now though it seems the iPhone maker my finally have done some of the required deals in order to get mobile payments off the ground, with VISA, MasterCard and even American Express said to have penned deals ahead of the impending iPhone 6 launch.
Sources apparently familiar with the matter have been speaking to a range of outlets about the project, though predictably none of them are willing to put a face to the claims. With Apple set with bring the next iPhone to market within weeks though, deals would need to already be in place if iOS was to begin processing payments. It’s debatable whether such a feature would be available outside the U.S. also, with payments handled differently internationally.
Apple has steered clear of NFC and mobile payments thus far, but there’s no smoke without fire, and with numerous rumors saying Apple has been looking into the pixels every year, it’s surely only a matter of time until we’re paying for our coffee with our iPhones.
September 9th is the day when the world will know directly from Apple’s mouth what it has in store. A couple of new iPhones with NFC that also shoots lasers? All will be clear on that particular day.
Like we’ve said before, it’s all a waiting game when it comes to such things.
(Source: Bloomberg)
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