Apple has reportedly reached agreements with several major payment networks, as it looks to launch its own iPhone wallet service on September 9.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, Apple has partnered up with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express on its new mobile payment system.
This service will reportedly take advantage of Apple's Touch ID fingerprint authentication system, which was introduced with the iPhone 5S, as well as the forthcoming iPhone 6 handsets' NFC chip, which will be a new component to the iPhone range. Apple has been slow in adopting this local communication technology compared to many of its Android-based rivals.
Of course, retailers have also been slow in adopting NFC payments, and there-in lies the snag. It requires expensive new equipment to be purchased, which appears to have proved too much of a gamble for most shops.
Perhaps with Apple's involvement, we'll finally see the whole mobile payment thing really taking off. Google for its part already has its own mobile payment system in Google Wallet, but it seems like a bit of a work-around, with a separate account that requires topping up with funds from your real bank accounts.
The hope is that Apple's system will enable direct access to your credit cards through your iPhone, and seamless biometric approval for such payments. We'll know for sure whether these hopes will come true in a little over a week.
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