Soon, it should be possible to put your credit card on the back of an iPhone to pay in a store or in a taxi.
Killer of the GPS, the compact camera, the MP3 player, the voice recorder or the notepad, the smartphone could soon attack the TPE. Payment terminals, which are generally bulky (not to say ugly), will soon receive competition from a major player: Apple. According to information from Bloomberg on January 27, 2022, the Californian brand aims to deploy a function allowing iPhones to receive payments from a contactless card. Such a novelty could be significant for many businesses, which today depend on specialized companies.
A function that will not please everyone
Apple has reportedly been working on the project since 2020, following its acquisition of Canadian company Mobeewave for $100 million. Its target would be small businesses, such as food trucks according to Bloomberg. Their managers would no longer need to buy/rent a TPE or acquire an accessory such as a small Bluetooth reader (Square, Up2pay, etc.). All they would have to do is go to an application designed for Apple, enter a sum and present their iPhone to the customer.
However, one can wonder what would be the counterparties requested by Apple. VSEs generally charge a commission, what about Apple? Will the service be available everywhere, or only in countries where Apple has a banking partner? In the event that the brand cuts prices (after all, it will not sell equipment), how will banks and specialists in the sector like Ingenico react? Their TPE have the advantage of accepting more payment methods (Apple would limit itself to contactless), but it is very likely that the iPhone will suffice in many establishments. No doubt they will not easily accept the arrival of Apple.
A spring launch?
More surprisingly, Apple would not wait for iOS 16 this fall, the next major update for its iPhones, to present this novelty. iOS 15.4, which should enter beta in the coming days before being officially presented in the spring, would be the lucky one. From April, reverse Apple Pay should therefore be available. We can’t wait to see what it will look like and how Apple will stand out from old-fashioned TPEs (possibility of splitting an invoice? Receipt of the automatic receipt?).
In the event that Apple does indeed present this novelty, one wonders what the competition’s response would be. To our knowledge, Samsung is the only manufacturer today that already has a similar mode (but Samsung Pay Touch is unknown to the general public). The visibility that Apple would offer to dematerialized payment could boost the interest of other brands.