As of February 8th, Apple Inc, announced that it will be coming up with a new feature which will enable access to businesses and retailers to accept Apple pay through an Apple device, namely the iPhones.
This particular feature is supposed to be launched in the later half of 2022. It will be part one of the iOS updates and will only be available to newer iPhones. This update will subsequently act as a feature aiding fintech services, making it more accessible to Apple users.
The Near Field Communications technology or NFC will be put to use for the working of this feature. It will be involved in making all sorts of payments, along with ones between iPhones.
Focussing on its intense privacy feature services, Apple will make sure to maintain the same in this new venture. On Tuesday, Apple specified that the tech giant themselves would not be aware of the details. This includes the parties involved in the purchase and the commodities exchanged.
Apple’s payment feature. ‘Apple Pay’ was released as early as 2014, gaining popularity from 2017. It was considered an easy and hassle-free way of payment which was safe and secure.
Now it is expanding to business payments, aiming to be as popular as Google Pay and other mediums.
Source: NDTV
The first of the Fintech services to offer the new “Tap to Pay” feature will be ‘Stripe and Shopify Point’ to business customers. This was confirmed by the company in a statement.
Although aiming for a Spring 2022 launch, it could be delayed till the end of Summer 2022. Apple aims to offer its best privacy services in this venture for the customers.
“Whether you’re a salesperson at an internet-first retailer or an individual entrepreneur, you can soon accept contactless payments on a device that’s already in your pocket: your iPhone,” Stripe’s chief business officer, Billy Alvarado commented.
Apple had initially launched its own credit card services, along with its widely used ‘buy now, pay later’ service. This feature will act as addition to Apple’s attempt at gearing up its fintech services.
Various analysts and business techs commented on this feature being launched by Apple. Observations, such as Apple venturing into the field of contactless payments indicates the importance of payments as an independent business, were made.
Shannon Cross, an analyst at Cross research pointed out at that payments are being viewed by Apple as a significant standalone business. Subsequently, it will enable them to leverage it.
The success or failure of this new service being made available by Apple would determine the future of various mediums offering contactless payments. The question lies on whether it will lead to intense competition in the fintech industry.
