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Apple will soon let small businesses accept contactless card payments directly onto their iPhones, according to a new report.
Bloomberg claims that Apple is implementing a system that will effectively bypass contactless payments from systems such as iZettle and Square, utilising an iPhone’s near field communications (NFC) facility without the need for plug-in tap-to-pay device.
The writing was on the wall for such a feature when Apple paid $100 million to acquire Mobevee in 2020. The Canadian startup had developed the technology for smartphones to accept credit card payments with a simple tap.
It’s not yet know whether Apple will choose to roll iPhone contactless payments into its existing Apple Pay suite, though it seems likely. Especially given that the team working on the feature has reportedly been working within the Apple Pay division at Apple HQ.
If such a major feature sounds like a candidate for iOS 16 at the end of the year, you’d be wrong. According to the report, Apple is looking to roll its new contactless payment feature out over the coming months, potentially as part of the iOS 15.4 update. iOS 15.3 just rolled out.
With a new iPhone SE said to be arriving in the same kind of time frame, not to mention an iPad Air with 5G (tablets being popular payment points with many small businesses), it could be the ideal time to announce and roll out such a feature.
Samsung worked with Mobeewave on a similar direct payment system, called Samsung POS, back in 2019.
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