Apple To Enter Mobile Payments Market

Do you use Paypal?  Many of us do!  But Apple has also started laying the foundations for a strong mobile payment service.  Eddy Cue,  App Store chief, has met with many payment decision makers in order to discuss the company’s potential in creating a payments business for goods and services, says the Wall Street Journal.  Apple has supposedly met with at least five payments industry administrators but has apparently chosen Jennifer Bailey, head of the company’s online store, to construct the new venture.


 This push towards a bigger mobile payments service is not a new idea by Apple but they have been exploring this aspect since 2011 when they began working on a ‘wallet app’ that had the potential to become a mobile payment service.  They ultimately got rid of the project as there were worried about near-field-communication technology’s drain on battery life as well as potential problems with customers who might blame Apple for bad customer service from outside merchants.
By 2017, it is estimated, by research firm Forrester, that Americans will spend over $90 billion on mobile payments.  It is a fast growing business.  American’s spend around $12.8 billion already.
Stripe recently announced they would spend $80 million in new funding, making it the fastest-growing payments startup at $1.75 billion.

On an April 2013 conference call, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, told investors that Mobile payment technology is still in the early stages.  But if anyone has the technology and resources to create a captivating Mobile payments technology, it’s Apple!
So far, besides Apple’s own digital wares, the mobile payments have been limited to Passbook which is an in-built app for storing digital coupons, tickets, gift cards as well as mobile payments.   It is still foggy as to whether Passbook would be built up or a completely new wallet app be created.