Apple Is Taking On Mobile Payments
One of the most important things as a business owner is to be able to take a payment for your
product as quickly and easily as possible, this will insure the customer has a satisfied experience, and will come back for more.
When on the go it could get annoyingly, time consuming having to enter entire credit card numbers, or account numbers to make, or take a payment. Seeing this Apple iTunes executive has met with industry executives to talk about expanding the mobile payments system built around iTunes to cover buying items at retail locations.
This is great news for consumers who has an iTunes account, all they would have to do to make a purchase is enter your passcode on your iTunes account, or if you have the iPhone 5s tap your thumb, and confirm your purchase. This is amazingly quick and easy.
In December, BI Intelligence wrote an article explaining why Apple has all the pieces needed to become a force in mobile payments this year. Here are the five main reasons:
• The Apple Passbook app already allows users to access gift/loyalty cards for use at various retail and restaurant chains.
• Apple has over 600 million Apple IDs on file, most of which are linked to a credit card, according to CEO Tim Cook. This is more than both PayPal and Amazon.
• Apple's fingerprint sensor on the new iPhone 5S provides would-be smartphone payments users
with a strong security feature for ID authentication and to protect payment information.
• Apple recently introduced the iCloud keychain, which stores passwords, credit cards, and all
the information needed to automatically fill in billing information on desktop and mobile e-
commerce platforms
• The new Bluetooth-powered iBeacon feature, available with iOS 7, could be paired with user
accounts to facilitate in-store shopping, including mobile in-store payments. Over 200 million
active iPhones have Apple's iBeacon technology installed already. (BI Intelligence)
“As just one of many possible examples of this phenomenon, Apple could introduce a next
generation payments solution. In terms of whether the marketplace is well addressed by mobile
payments solutions, Tim Cook has said, “I think it is in its infancy, I think it is just getting started
and just of out of the starting block.” With the fingerprint sensor, iBeacon, 575+ million credit
card numbers stored in iTunes, and Apple’s homogeneous iOS installed base with 79% of devices using iOS 7, we believe a revolutionary payments solution is now a very real opportunity that
the company could choose to pursue,” suggested Carl Icahn, activist investor to the company, in
the open letter to Apple shareholders.Launching a mobile payment through iTunes will work wonders in bringing in revenue for the company and make consumers and business owners have a faster more convenient experience.
by Shantescia Hill
