Apple signs up credit-card companies for NFC payments
Apple has reportedly struck a deal with American Express, MasterCard and Visa to bring NFC mobile payments to the iPhone 6.
The agreements between Apple and the credit-card companies will be officially announced next week alongside the iPhone 6, iPhone 6L, next iPad and, possibly, the iWatch, according to Bloomberg.
According to Bloomberg's source, the inclusion of the NFC chip in the next iPhone and improvements in its Touch ID fingerprint scanner "will allow consumers to securely pay for items in a store with the touch of a finger".
Re/code separately reported the deal with American Express, while The Information claimed a deal had been signed with Visa back in July.
Fourth time lucky?
Of course, this isn't the first time NFC payment rumours have attached themselves to an iPhone launch. Speculation that Apple will adopt the technology has been rife since the 4S, but as yet nothing has materialised.
In 2011, the company introduced its own rival iBeacon technology and, when the iPhone 5 was launched, Phil Schiller, SVP at Apple, categorically ruled out NFC, telling AllThingsD the company's own Passbook system "does the kinds of things customers need today".
However, in the three years since its launch, iBeacon support by third parties has been slow to take off, which may have prompted Apple to adopt NFC alongside its own technology.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/390496/apple-signs-up-credit-card-companies-for-nfc-payments#ixzz3C3wEFGRU
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