Apple is introducing a new feature that will allow businesses to accept credit card and digital payments with just a tap on their iPhones, bypassing hardware systems such as Block's Square terminals.
The feature, to be launched later this year, will use near field communications (NFC) technology for making all kinds of payments, including between iPhones, Apple said on Tuesday. The tech giant added that it would not know what was being purchased or who was buying it, stressing on the service privacy feature.
Fintech services Stripe and Shopify Point will be the first to offer the “Tap to Pay” feature to business customers in the spring of 2022 in the US, the company said in a statement.
“Whether you're a salesperson at an internet-first retailer or an individual entrepreneur, you can soon accept contactless payments on a device that's already in your pocket: your iPhone,” said Billy Alvarado, Stripe's chief business officer.
Apple has been beefing up its fintech services. It launched its own credit card with Sachs in 2019 and is reportedly working on a "buy now, pay later" service.
“Apple views payments as an important standalone business for the company they are looking to leverage it,” said Shannon Cross, analyst at Cross Research.
The Dutch antitrust watchdog on Monday said it is studying whether a new round of changes Apple has announced to its App Store terms and conditions in the Netherlands will bring it into compliance with national law.
The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has been levying weekly fines of EUR 5 million (roughly Rs. 42 crore) on Apple since January 24, saying the company had failed to open its app store to allow dating app providers in the Netherlands to use alternative payment methods.
Apple is under pressure in many countries over the commissions it charges on in-app purchases, with the US Senate approving a bill on Thursday that would bar Apple and Google from requiring users to use their payment systems. Apple on January 15 asserted it had complied with the Dutch regulator's December order covering only dating apps like Match Group's Tinder, but the regulator responded that Apple hadn't actually yet made changes - it had just indicated it would.
On February 3, Apple made a further statement on its blog, apparently laying out how developers could now implement the alternative payment methods.
One important footnote was that Apple said it would still charge a 27 percent commission on in-app payments it does not process, only slightly below the 30 percent it currently charges. The company said that is "consistent with the ACM order". A spokesperson for the ACM said the agency was studying Apple's changes and would respond soon.
Apple is separately appealing the ACM's original December decision, arguing that alternative payment systems pose a security risk to users. American tech giant Apple's three-month free trial for new users has been reduced down to one month in some countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, and the UK among others. Apple acquired a startup called AI Music that uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, adding technology that could be used across its slate of audio offerings.
The purchase of AI Music, a London-based business founded in 2016, was completed in recent weeks.
Technology developed by AI Music can create soundtracks using royalty-free music and artificial intelligence, according to a copy of its now-defunct website. A song in a video game could change to fit the mood, for instance, or music during a workout could adapt to the user's intensity. On Linked in, AI Music said its goal is to “give consumers the power to choose the music they want, seamlessly edited to fit their needs or create dynamic solutions that adapt to fit their audiences.” The startup had earlier deals with advertising companies to create more engaging ads that played different music depending on the audience.
A representative of Cupertino, California-based apple declined to comment.
While relatively small, the deal is one of the tech giant's few acquisitions in the past year. Apple's last reported purchase was also for a music company. That startup ran a classical music streaming service that Apple intends to turn into an app tied to apple this year.
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