The company has been building its workforce for a massive effort it will be making in this sector.
While Android smartphone owners have had the opportunity to use mobile payments for some time now, iPhone owners have not yet have that privilege – although that could be changing very soon.
Apple has reported started interviewing candidates for senior level positions for just this type of service.
The new hires will allegedly be responsible for creating an iTunes supported mobile payments business for Apple. According to Jennifer Bailey, an executive from Apple who was once responsible for the online stores at the company, they have recently been meeting up with “senior payments industry executives.” The purpose is to encourage them to become a part of the iPhone team in order to be a part of the company’s new initiative.
It looks as though the company is going to be making a large mobile payments push in the not too distant future.
There are two positions that Apple is working hard to fill at the moment, both of which are the type that are typically considered to be central for the early stages of the development of a new product. They are the head of business development and head of product positions.
Rumors of a smartphone based payments system is nothing new to Apple. It has been part of the rumor mill since before Google even started trying its Wallet app in its pilot programs. However, earlier this year, the company started to show more signs that it is taking the effort much more seriously and a report was drawn up that showed that the company has been “laying the groundwork” for this type of service.
In fact, for a while, it looked like it would be Bailey who would be spearheading the Apple mobile payments project. It also looked as though the company would be working in partnership with PayPal in order to provide these services. A report from Monday showed that talks with PayPal have been continuing until as recently as March. That company had previously been believed to be willing to work with Apple in order to establish significant parts of its fraud prevention infrastructure.
Apple’s CEO has placed the spotlight back on the ability to complete transactions with iOS devices.
Tim Cook, the chief executive at Apple, recently dropped some hints regarding a mobile payments strategy for the iPhone manufacturer, as well as for the use of the Touch ID feature that was recently added to their mobile devices.
Though this was clearly not an announcement, it was certainly a hint about things to come.
Cook linked the idea of mobile payments with the Touch ID system technology that is included in the latest smartphone releases from Apple. When he held a conference call with analysts, discussing the earnings of the company, he stated that this is sector “we’ve been intrigued with,” and added that “It was one of the thoughts behind Touch ID.”
The feature was unveiled as a security enhancement but could also provide mobile payments verification.
The TouchID until now has been meant for making it easy and convenient to unlock the iPhones without having to enter a password. That said, ever since it was first seen, there have been speculations made regarding its potential use for verifying an individual’s identity if the device is used for making a purchase.
That said, Apple has not yet given any other online merchants the opportunity to use the device for making verifications of purchases. It has also not provided access to the fingerprint scanner of Touch ID to third parties. Equally, it hasn’t provided third party access to the Secure Enclave verification computing resources from A7 for any other reasons.
During the conference call, Cook did say that there has been a positive response from the public to the existing form of Touch ID functionality. He expressed that Apple is seeing that people enjoy being able to use it for verification in order to make purchases from the iTunes store. He said that they have been watching people liking the opportunity to purchase content ranging from books to music and movies. His description of the purchases using Touch ID was “incredibly simple and easy and elegant.”
More specifically, he did go as far as to say that in terms of mobile payments, “It’s clear that there’s a lot of opportunity here.”
