Apple has been growing its iTunes customer base for the past decade and it looks like they will use this as leverage into the mobile payments business, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
The move was inevitable, considering Apple has around 600 million customer credit cards on record and currently offers no easy way for people to use their iTunes information to buy third party items.
We believe Apple will offer a service similar to the Google Wallet, allowing users to pay with their iTunes or Apple card in a large amount of physical stores, possibly through the smartphone.
This would mean Apple would have to add NFC to the iPhone 6, unless they find out some propriety way of completing transactions through mobile. This would be a big push into the market, competing directly with PayPal and Square.
Mobile payments are only just being explored and almost all ageing types of currency are either trying to hop on the bandwagon or viciously defending its own ideas, by getting the mobile payments out of major markets.
Apple stepping into the market would be an eye-opener and according to the report Apple’s Head of Services Eddy Cue has been meeting with industry experts, hitting deals with major market chains.
If Apple could get the mobile payment service into places like Walmart, Starbucks and other high-volume places, taking a little slice from every transaction, it would be a huge new market for the company.
It is also more likely to be a polished product, most of Apple’s ideas like Touch ID and Airdrop work well, even if Apple Maps and Siri has blurred its perfect image slightly.
