Apple is building the infrastructure for a mobile payment service, claims the Wall Street Journal. Executives such as Eddy Cue, Apple’s VP of Internet Services, have been meeting with other industry leaders to discuss the possibility of Apple processing mobile payments for physical goods and services.
People with knowledge of the situation claim the company has moved executive Jennifer Bailey from her position in Apple’s online storefront to a new role that’ll oversee the development of a payment business. Apple allegedly spoke to five other executives in the payment industry before selecting Bailey for this role.
“Apple is absolutely the sleeping giant in the payments world,” said Denee Carrington, analyst at Forrester Research. “They have the capability; they just haven’t tied it all together.”A recent Apple patent application reveals how Apple may enable a mobile payment service using its iBeacon technology. In this method, the phone would initiate a secure connection via Bluetooth or NFC to a point-of-service terminal that’ll process the payment. On the phone side of the equation, Apple has overs 400 million iTunes accounts that are tied to credit cards with one click payment authorization. Apple also has Passbook, an app that stores your discount coupons, boarding passes, movie tickets, and more. Apple has allowed Passbook to languish in iOS 7. Instead of a sign that it is sun setting this app, perhaps Apple is keeping Passbook waiting in the wings, while it builds something even better out of it.
Apple has refused to comment on this Wall Street Journal report.
0 comments:
Post a Comment