Apple is rumoured to have signed deals with credit card payment giants American Express, Visa and MasterCard, with multiple reports suggesting a string of mobile payment deals has been struck.
In July, The Informationreported “some partners” claiming Apple had told them its forthcoming devices would include a piece of hardware, known as a “secured element, which would store sensitive information. The report also claimed Apple had struck a deal with Visa, and mobile carriers were locked out of Apple’s payments system.
Over the weekend, citing “sources familiar with the talks”, Re/Code reported Apple has struck a deal to get American Express to work with its mobile payments system. The report also claims the system will allow consumers to use an iPhones in place of credit cards, debit cards or cash to pay for goods in brick-and-mortar stores.
Following the earlier reports, Bloomberg reported Apple had forged a partnership that includes a number of major payment networks, banks and retailers, including Visa, MasterCard and American Express.
Citing “a person familiar with the situation”, the report said Apple will finally include an NFC (near-field communications) chip in the iPhone 6, years after the technology became standard on every other smartphone platform including BlackBerry, in combination with fingerprint recognition.
The latest rumours come after reports were published by Wired on Friday that claimed Apple would include an NFC-based mobile payments platform as part of the iPhone 6, which is expected to launch on September 9 alongside an Apple smartwatch.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
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