According to reports, Apple have recently acquired Mobeewave in a deal that could see iPhones transformed into mobile payment terminals.
Mobeewave’s technology allows consumers to process payments by tapping their cards or phones onto another phone just as you would on various contactless payment terminals. By the sounds of it, this technology could prove extremely beneficial not only for the move from handling cash to a more digital world of payment but also for businesses who could quickly set up payment machines on a device almost always in their pockets.
According to Bloomberg, Apple are being quite secretive about the acquisition, refusing to discuss any future plans or purpose, however, in the past Apple has used start-up tech in their own products and features and it would not be surprising to see them do the same with Mobeewave.
If the reports do come true and apple give businesses the chance to use their phones to process payments will Android consumers be able to tap their Google Pay enabled phones to make a payment or will this be exclusively for Apple phones? And what about business owners who use android phones, I guess they’ll be missing out on the easy life. If it does turn out to be restricted, which I would like to imagine unlikely then businesses could face a big problem being unable to cater to the large portion of Android users and might find themselves going from “Sorry, we don’t take card” to “Sorry, we don’t take Android” and going through the trouble of having a less discriminative payment terminal anyway.
2 Responses
This is interesting and was when it was first announced on Bloomberg a few days ago.
However, your stance on the story is as bad as the mainstream media has been over Covid – you’ve gone straight to a “negative” feature that you have no idea of validity because Apple are being “quite secretive”. Almost like you either wish Apple had not bought the start up or that you hope it fails if it doesn’t do what you want it to.
It’s rather like a film studio only releasing a film on VHS or on Betamax, back in the day, rather than on both. Sometimes, you can’t have what you want simply because you made a choice that had nothing to do with the future development (of the film, or in this case the payment methodology). I guess because it’s Apple, the same goes for if Google, or Microsoft, or what about Nokia had bought the start up but no consideration is given to the possibility (probability?) of licencing agreements or to the fact that apps are (generally) developed for multi platform.
I do wish that you could report the story, because it is interesting, and maybe add your thoughts such as those you’ve expressed, rather than report it with the negative slant it has. It doesn’t take too much effort to consider the impartiality of a report and then add some points for consideration or discussion.