According to a Re/code report Sunday, Apple has been working hard to secure deals with a range of providers, with American Express the most recent firm to come on board. It was suggested back in July that Visa was also discussing a deal, while MasterCard is believed to have partnered with the tech company, too.
Related: iPhone 6 latest
News of the deals back up earlier reports that Apple’s iPhone 6, which will be unveiled in possibly two sizes on September 9, will launch with an NFC chip, enabling customers to pay for goods at certain stores simply by tapping their handset on a payment terminal.
Apple has been slow to adopt NFC technology compared to its competitors. Many Android smartphones made by Samsung, LG, HTC, and Sony, for example, already incorporate the technology, which integrates with Google Wallet or similar apps. A number of Windows Phone and BlackBerry handsets also make use of NFC technology.
Touch ID
It’s also been suggested that Apple could integrate additional mobile payment possibilities into its Touch ID fingerprint sensor, allowing users to make a purchase simply by placing their finger on the device’s Home button. At the moment users can authorize purchases from the iTunes Store in this way.
With Apple already in possession of millions of its customers’ credit card details through its iTunes Store, setting up the mobile wallet on the new iPhone should be a quick and simple process.
While many retailers are yet to include technology for accepting payment from NFC-enabled mobile devices, Apple’s expected adoption of the technology into a phone expected to sell in huge numbers could push many businesses to take a closer look at offering such an option.
With the launch of the iPhone 6 just over a week away, we don’t have too long to wait to discover exactly how Apple plans to move forward with mobile payments.
