Apple Plans Service That Lets iPhone Users Pay With Handsets: REPORT

iPhone and iPad users may soon be leaving their credit cards at home.

Using a new technology, Near-Field Communication, Apple Inc. plans to introduce services that will allow customers to use their Apple products to make purchases, Bloomberg reports.

Near-Field Communication can beam and receive information from up to 4 inches away -- and both the iPad 2 and the next version of ATT's iPhone will likely be equipped with it. Bloomberg has more detail:

Apple's service may be able to tap into user information already on file, including credit-card numbers, iTunes gift-card balance and bank data, said Richard Crone, who leads financial industry adviser Crone Consulting LLC in San Carlos,California. That could make it an alternative to programs offered by such companies as Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. andEBay Inc.'s PayPal, said Taylor Hamilton, an analyst at consultant IBISWorld Inc. "It would make a lot of sense for Apple to include NFC functionality in its products," Crone said.

Google's latest Nexus S phone already has an NFC chip in it. Back in November, when Google's outgoing-CEO Eric Schmidt first confirmed that Google was working on an upgrade of its Android operating system to include a payment processing tool, he said:

"I still expect to be using credit cards for many, many years," he told reporters after his presentation. As computer chips and mobile software continues to improve, Schmidt envisions the day when phones will be able to alert their owners when they are passing by a merchant with a product or service on their shopping list.

The potential uses for this technology may go far beyond credit card substitutes. A hotel in Stockholm, for example, is planning on using it to convert mobile phones into keys for visitors to unlock the door to their rooms.

Comments

[Rich Phitzwell]

02:47 PM on 01/26/2011

Security does matter but there are plenty of ways to pay with phones that have been around for awhile now. Paypal bump, www.squareup.com, heck even by use of barcodes. As for NFC, is this just a rebranding of RFID's? The same technology that has been around for well over a decade just now being integrated into phones?

[PubicOption]

11:29 AM on 01/26/2011

Google/Android already provides this in their newest pure Google phone, the Nexus S.

Of course, it really won't catch on until Apple renames its "iPay", at which point it will be deemed 'revolutionary' and 'magic'...

[Smirk]

10:50 PM on 01/25/2011

No way. Not any phone or any other gadget. Or, at least, not until it's the only means available.

[LightShadow62]

05:15 PM on 01/25/2011

So I wonder how much Apple plans to charge for this service?

[Tom-44]

03:43 PM on 01/25/2011

Just another tool in this so called high tech industry that will help increase theft instead of securing ones personal property.

[crayola 08b]

02:52 PM on 01/25/2011

i think it's getting about time we start rethinking the many uses of our smartphones and come up with another name that more accurately reflects how multi-purpose they've become and will continue to become.

maybe in a few years apple can rename the iPhone the iCom (for communication device), or the iCon (for connection device). frankly i think the Apple iCon has a nice, um, ring to it.

[AntonioVTorres]

01:53 PM on 01/25/2011

LOL.. if you ever thought Apple products couldn't be hacked (which means you ignored the whole concept of jailbreaking), right now is the time when hackers will really start paying attention. Being the largely ignored stepchild of technology lets Apple users believe they are safe from hackers. Apple plays on it by acting like it's because their system is secure (which means they ignored the under-a-week OS hacks). Apple is going to be tested in the security category very heavily if they try to marry credit card information to cellphones. It's a major game changer for hackers. Your money + weak security iPhones = major hacker pay day! Good luck.

[jrb35]

02:40 PM on 01/25/2011

You could say that about any smart phone because they'll all be offering the same feature in a year or two. Doesn't change the fact that the iPhone is still a superior product that everyone else continues to copy.

[AntonioVTorres]

04:00 PM on 01/25/2011

i think you just dropped another call from that exposed antenna.. oh wait.. that hardware defect was fixed with a software update.. lol @ superior

[John Kramarz]

07:51 PM on 01/25/2011

"Being the largely ignored stepchild of technology lets Apple users believe they are safe from hackers."

so funny.
Hackers are pretty stupid to ignore a company almost as large as Exxon. Somehow I'm gonna sleep like a baby@

[bigbubba90210]

06:09 AM on 01/26/2011

Feel free to sleep as well or as poor that you wish. But don't think for a second that your iOS device (presuming you own one) isn't secure just because hackers haven't yet targeted it. It's only a matter of time before they do.

[CheapTrick]

01:46 PM on 01/25/2011

So now dropping your iphone in a puddle will no longer be an inconvenience... it will be a life-altering tragedy.

[netzwerg]

01:45 PM on 01/25/2011

The Nokia 6131 from 2006 already uses NFC. You can pay with that NFC system on our high-speed rail network for years already.
http://europe.nokia.com/find-products/devices/nokia-6131-nfc

[John Kramarz]

07:52 PM on 01/25/2011

and all 7 of those users have been very pleased

[EasyCheese]

01:44 PM on 01/25/2011

Apple is playing catch-up...again...however they will claim they were first...

And all the apple fans will follow the crowd...

[John Kramarz]

12:00 AM on 01/26/2011

catch up to what? This tech is in it's beginning stages.
Or, tell us where YOU have used this kind of device to pay for any products?

[PubicOption]

11:30 AM on 01/26/2011

Go to your nearest BestBuy and ask for the Nexus S Google phone, which runs on TMobile. It was released last month and already has this technology (NFC) built into the handset.....

[hazzardproject]

04:29 AM on 01/26/2011

Catch up? It's widely known that NFC has been existent for years. Apple's not introducing the NFC as a "first". If you read the article properly, they're introducing a "service" and not "NFC" which "could make it an alternative to programs offered by such companies as Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. andEBay Inc.'s PayPal".

[foodle]

12:44 PM on 01/25/2011

"Google is also said to be developing a phone with Near Field Communication."

The Google Nexus S released in December already has NFC built-in.