It has been reported that Apple has been experimenting with the Near Field Communication (NFC). It is rumored that Apple has iPhone prototypes with the NFC chips. Apple’s Passbook will not be a full blown mobile wallet that will let you purchases when it lands on the iPhone. According to a report published on WSJ Apple does not want to get into the mobile payments right away.
- Apple’s head of iPhone software, Scott Forstall, was interested in the idea, say people familiar with the matter, and engineers on his team began to brainstorm a comprehensive “wallet app.”
- They discussed whether Apple should facilitate payments to merchants directly, one of these people said. The idea didn’t go very far, on account of the complexity, including the possibility that the company would need to become a bank.
- The Apple team investigated ways to make money from various ideas, such as teaming up with an existing payment middleman and taking a small cut of many transactions rather than layering on an additional fee. Some who worked on the project referred to the idea as “the Superman III” play, in honor of the movie’s greedy tech-savvy villain, this person said.
