Gadgetory

I Apple is making a play for the world's wallet CBC's Jon Fortt has the story hey John Hey most Apple is positioning itself to jump into the mobile payments arena in a big way the company is investing a technology called near field communication or NFC which would allow a hovering phone to replace a credit card swipe now mobile commerce of all kinds is all the rage and there's lots of evidence that Apple is very interested in this area researcher richard doherty says his sources confirm apple buying NFC related equipment this summer Apple hide an NFC expert is a product manager for mobile commerce and the company has logged several recent patents around letting consumers use their phones to pull payments from their bank or iTunes account the Apple wouldn't be the first to the NFC party nokia and samsung have released several NFC capable phones and at google's nexus s android phone manufactured by samsung supports this too but Apple is poised to drive adoption of the technology and benefit from it like few of its peers now the reason why is because Apple is itself a major retailer in its last fiscal year Apple's retail operation turned in nine point eight billion dollars in net sales up forty-seven percent on top of that iTunes Store and accessories sales for nearly five billion dollars if Apple implements its own payment system it can not only save money by cutting out credit card companies on some transactions but also drive sales and emerging markets where credit cards aren't comment now when will we know more Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference this summer is a likely time that's when it will have software developers attention and when it's expected to unveil the iphone 5 back to you alright John fourth thanks so much for that report will Apple stock is down nearly two percent along with the Nasdaq index so how will this move into ibanks affect the company and will they face any competition joining us now is jon rettinger editor and chief of TechnoBuffalo John thanks so much for joining us how is this different or better than what already exists so it is a very different technology NFC as John mentioned has been around for quite a while but where Apple has the edge is in their market penetration I phones are everywhere not to mention iTunes is access to 160 million credit card already in the system Apple is in the really unique position to actually subsidize the manufacturers equipment the vendors equipment that's going to be necessary to implement this new NFC rage which supposedly will be in the iphone 5 what do you think if you had to bet how likely is it that this is going to happen and is going to dominate you know I'm not one to bet against Apple the iphone revolutionized how we browse the internet the app smartphones in general really killed the personal organisers people use them as their cameras I would say it's almost a sure thing that the smartphone's going to change the way we use our wallets in the very near future well I mean one of the things you say is that Apple likes to find something that's difficult simplify the hell out of it and then make a lot of money doing that sounds like a great plan it can they apply that to this because this is a little bit outside their core competency they absolutely can so to sort of simplify what Apple is looking to do is to turn every smartphone essentially into a debit card so when you go to your grocery store instead of swiping your credit card you'll wave your iPhone just a few inches from a panel and a transaction is issued what Apple can do and where they have the edge over other manufacturers again isn't that market penetration people are going to buy iphones regardless the problem and other manufacturers have had implementing NFC technologies is getting that in the hands of the vendors the people that are actually selling the goods Apple has long head of history especially with the iphone of subsidizing devices so I wouldn't put the past Apple to use their vast cash reserves and actually give this equipment free of charge to the manufacturers to really help achieve the market penetration yeah a new NFC system it sounds like a terrifying tool in the hand of a tween what's to stop you know other companies from doing the exact same thing after they go out and simplify the hell out of it make a lot of money will everybody else fall on their heels you know as Apple tends to go so go the rest of the tech industry right make apple clearly redefined the mobile market space with the iphone they define the tablet market space as well with the ipad so when companies are competing certainly the consumers win I wouldn't put it past someone like Google to get into this arena as well as John mentioned NFC technology is already implemented in Google's Nexus S foam ones all right John thanks so much for joining else we appreciate me