Tuesday’s Apple conference in Cupertino is expected to be the platform for the launch of a new mobile payments system that could be another huge success for the company. Bloomberg reports that Apple has teamed up with Visa, MasterCard and American Express for the new iPhone Wallet system. The new iPhone 6 will incude an NFC (near-field communication) chip for the first time and this will open the floodgates for a major leap in popularity of paying by phone. Along with Touch ID, which already unlocks a phone in seconds and will be extended to many apps under iOS 8, the iPhone will become the most convenient way to pay for a wide range of goods and services.
Ben Barjarin of Creative Strategies in San Jose is quoted:
Love it or hate, Apple drives a lot of standards in the industry,” Bajarin said in an interview. “They are the mover in these markets. When they do something, the industry seems to follow.
Apple already holds credit card details for over 800 million iTunes accounts and this puts the company in pole position to develop a mobile payments system with immense potential.