Tag: mobile payments news

Apple may be inching into mobile payments arena with iPhone upgrades

While Apple has not made any firm announcement concerning its future involvement in mobile payments, the company may have a major impact on that sector in the coming months. Wells Fargo has raised its projected price range for Apple stock this week, citing news that the famed technology company will become more flexible in its relationship with carriers of its iPhone devices. New technology that is expected to be introduced with the iPhone 5S is also creating some buzz and this technology could help boost the adoption of the already popular mobile device.

Fingerprint sensors could boost mobile security

Apple is expected to include fingerprint sensing technology in its iPhone 5S, which is likely to be released later this year. This technology comes from AethenTec, which was acquired by Apple somewhat recently. The company specializes in security technologies and its fingerprint scanner could make next generation iPhones significantly more secure than their predecessors. This added security could create more confidence among consumers and boost adoption rates, especially among those interested in mobile payments.

Apple to be more flexible with iPhone sales restrictions

Apple is also expected to relax the restrictions it has on iPhone sales, which will allow its partners to exhibit more flexibility in the device market. This may help Apple compete more effectively against other companies, such as Samsung, when it comes to mobile technology. Better security features may help Apple’s partners market the iPhone 5S to corporate customers — a market that has been held firmly by BlackBerry for several years.

Mobile payments may be in Apple’s future

Apple has been slow to warm to the concept of mobile payments in the past. Security concerns had caused the company to distance itself from NFC technology, which forms the backbone of most mobile payments platforms. Apple has been looking for an alternative to NFC and some rumors suggest that the company is developing its own mobile payments system for future iterations of its smartphones and tablets.

Although it wasn’t very long ago since the tech speculation blogs couldn’t stop talking about the card reader, it may be gone.

Amazon, like Apple, Google, and other tech giants, is always a beloved topic for the technology rumor mill and, until recently, it was strongly believed that the online retailer was in the midst of developing certain devices above and beyond its Kindle tablets and e-readers, including a mobile payments gadget.

The speculations about that particular machine, however, have begun to fade, across the map.

Although it was difficult to read the Amazon headlines over the spring and summer and not find a new update of some form regarding a mobile payments card reader from the company, it seems that the attention has been turned away from that type of device and is now looking into a smart-watch, a smartphone, or even a video game console.

This suggests that there won’t be much more to say about that particular mobile payments device.

Despite all of the hype, excitement, predictions, and claims backed by “official sources”, it looks as though any chance that these mobile payments card readers from Amazon will come to reality is all but gone. Even if that is something that Amazon may investigate in the future, it doesn’t look as though such an idea is anywhere but on the back burner, at the moment.

At the same time, Amazon is still reportedly planning to use an app and mobile payments to be able to sell physical products. The in-app purchasing strategy is well on its way and has gained the company a tremendous amount of attention over the last while not only from tech experts, but also from app developers.

According to a new report, the application programming interface (API) has been in the market for some time now, regarding the in-app purchasing at Amazon. At the moment, this gives consumers the opportunity to purchase digital content, such as expansion packs, in-game currency, and electronic versions of books and magazines.

As this technology has been greatly successful, purchasing and mobile payments within an in-app experience will soon be making its way to the physical products environment, as well.