Apple staffing up for 'very, very serious' mobile payments push - report
iPhone owners may soon be able to use their device to purchase goods and services at brick-and-mortar businesses as Apple has reportedly begun interviewing senior-level candidates to build an iTunes-backed mobile payments business.
Apple executive Jennifer Bailey, who previously ran the company's online stores, is said to have been meeting with "senior payments industry executives" about joining the iPhone maker to lead the initiative. Word of the talks was first reported by Re/code.
Apple's "ambitions are very, very serious," one source told the publication, though they likely will not come to a head in the near future. Both positions that Apple is attempting to fill -- heads of product and business development -- are usually foundational roles that are filled early in a product development process.
Whispers of an Apple-built mobile payment system designed to leverage the hundreds of millions of credit card-backed accounts in iTunes have been circulating for years, but took on a new urgency earlier this year with a report that Apple was "laying groundwork" for such a move. At the time, it was said that Bailey had been tabbed to spearhead the project and that Apple was in talks with payments giant PayPal as a partner.
According to Monday's report, those talks have been ongoing and conversations were held as recently as last month. PayPal was previously thought to be willing to white label large swaths of its infrastructure for Apple, including logistically challenging areas like fraud prevention.
Earlier this year, AppleInsider discovered an Apple patent filing detailing a touchless secure e-wallet system. Apple CEO Tim Cook has also said that mobile payments were "one of the thoughts behind Touch ID," adding weight to the rumors.
Apple executive Jennifer Bailey, who previously ran the company's online stores, is said to have been meeting with "senior payments industry executives" about joining the iPhone maker to lead the initiative. Word of the talks was first reported by Re/code.
Apple's "ambitions are very, very serious," one source told the publication, though they likely will not come to a head in the near future. Both positions that Apple is attempting to fill -- heads of product and business development -- are usually foundational roles that are filled early in a product development process.
Whispers of an Apple-built mobile payment system designed to leverage the hundreds of millions of credit card-backed accounts in iTunes have been circulating for years, but took on a new urgency earlier this year with a report that Apple was "laying groundwork" for such a move. At the time, it was said that Bailey had been tabbed to spearhead the project and that Apple was in talks with payments giant PayPal as a partner.
According to Monday's report, those talks have been ongoing and conversations were held as recently as last month. PayPal was previously thought to be willing to white label large swaths of its infrastructure for Apple, including logistically challenging areas like fraud prevention.
Earlier this year, AppleInsider discovered an Apple patent filing detailing a touchless secure e-wallet system. Apple CEO Tim Cook has also said that mobile payments were "one of the thoughts behind Touch ID," adding weight to the rumors.
Comments
soon. (adverb; in or after a short time)
just not in the near future soon.
how many tick thingies in an appleinsider "soon"?
In terms of the cosmos (both the physical realm and the TV show) anything within the scope of humanity endeavors is barely a blip on the radar.
Possibly, but I'm thinking it will be like iBeacons and CarPlay where Apple's devices are better suited but there will be no reason why other OSes won't be able to use the same basic systems that iDevices will need to connect to.
I will also be more shocked if NFC isn't utilized between your iDevice and the retailer's HW. So far there is nothing else that offers a more secure option as NFC's short-range local loop. That doesn't mean BT isn't utilized but the actual exchange needs to be done over something that can't be picked up secretly by any number of people within a 40 foot radius.
Goto Fail, GnuTLS, HeartBleed. Now isn't the best time to push this.
No more standing in line at stores.
I first outlined a plan for that in… ’10, I think it was. Can’t wait to see if it actually happens. I’d love to retire the concept of a cashier from human society.
Oh, don’t fret. Menial jobs will still exist. Instead of registers there will be bins at the front of the store where you can place any items you changed your mind on before leaving (which automatically confirms payment). People will still be needed to put those back on their proper shelves.
At least until we get a humanoid robot that can carry things and recognize location. Oops, already do.
But Apple products aren’t affected. What do they care about anyone else’s systems?
I don't recall security concerns ever being a reason why Google Wallet didn't take off. The most common reason I hear is due to phone carriers blocking it as they wanted a competing solution, Isis, to be the one that people used. I suspect Apple has paid close attention to where Google Wallet has struggled and will learn from Google's mistakes.
Go To Fail was all Apple. But your point still stands. Apple shouldn't not work for a future product because there were recently some bad security holes made public and patched. There were security holes in the past and there will more in the future. There is potentially bad luck by announcing a product that is then considered unsafe soon after. All Apple can do is try their find solutions to potential problems before they happen, but there will always be the risk of something happening that was completely unexpected.
I seem to recall that the NFC or Wallet could be hijacked by another device remotely.
There's zero benefits to tapping your iPhone to make a payment over a regular credit card, and there's actually increased risk. Apple can reduce the risk and reduce merchant fees providing real advantages to everyone.
~~Apple's "ambitions are very, very serious," one source told the publication
Wow, cant wait till they are very, very, very, very, very serious. Because, you know, very very serious is not, well, as serious as very very very very serious.
/s
I seem to recall that the NFC or Wallet could be hijacked by another device remotely.
I never heard that one before. One thing that's for certain though is that the Google Wallet service was blocked on the two major phone carriers and so consumers weren't able to use it even if they wanted to. However, you could use Isis on those carriers.
Really looking forward to Apple knocking this one out of the park.
"Staffing up".
So 2015 then.
I would like to Apple able to bypass credit card companies entirely. Square is having difficulty, so reported today, since they have to make a profit and pay credit card fees above that.
Same here. I'd rather pay using my iPhone or cash for everything. If Apple can simultaneously figure out a usable Bitcoin implementation at the same time, so much the better. Right now, a person using Bitcoin to pay for a cup of coffee has to report capital gains to the IRS!
Apple iBeacons tech and implementation, likely, will be better than the competition. Samsung has already announced a competing technology named FlyBells. *
http://www.iosrumor.com/2014/02/21/samsungs-ibeacon-is-called-flybell/
* Aside: I used to use FlyBells, but now I wear big boy pants
I think Apple will add NFC for those societies who already use it for boarding trains, etc.
Apple could also use NFC to quickly establish a secure WiFi or Bluetooth LE connection for more robust data exchange.
With the connection requires the devices be no more than a couple inches away from each other I'm not see how. BT is typically used to assist with NFC data before the link is made.
Will I be able to classify a purchase and enter comments about what I bought at the time of purchase? If not, my iPhone will just be a heavier, clumsier version of the credit card I already have.
Maybe you will, but even if not, it will save you having to wait in line with all the legacy shoppers and their plastic-that-has-to-be-physically-swiped credit cards.
"Staffing up".
So 2015 then.
I'm not so sure of that.
It took Apple nearly a year and a half to integrate Siri into iOS; they acquired that company in its entirety including a functional app.
They are trying to hire two senior level managers for very early positions (product director, first biz dev person). They would have to create a roadmap, find key business partners, then hire a team to create the architecture, build the software and framework, write an API, and incorporate with the rest of the operating system following a likely timetable for new functionality which would be a major iOS/OS X release.
I don't know if the fourteen months until WWDC 2015 is enough time to get all of that done. It seems unlikely.
It's not like the US mobile payments market is mature. There are a handful of markets (like Japan) where certain mobile payment systems are now entrenched, but that is not the case for most of the world.
The 'hijacker' would have to be in real close proximity. Basically a digital form of pickpocket.