Apple to Reportedly Enable iPhones to Become Credit Card Payment Terminals

Apple is reportedly developing a way to let iPhones become direct credit card payment options. This new payment solution would see to it that no additional hardware is required.

As Bloomberg reports, this news comes off the heels of Apple’s $100 million acquisition of Canadian tech company Mobeewave. The company has been known for developing a method to see NFC-enabled credit card payments being made by tapping directly onto a smartphone. Now, it appears as though Apple wants to utilize that technology for iPhone.

Apple has been NFC through its iPhones for many years at this point. Apple Pay has been well supported in many countries and provides an easy-to-use payment solution for customers. However, for vendors, many are required to use a Square terminal or other hardware. Bloomberg‘s sources with “knowledge of the matter” state that the payment feature is nearing its official rollout. Once active, those additional pieces of hardware will no longer be required for vendors.

Bloomberg believes the feature could roll out to markets within the next few months. Theoretically, as NFC technology is already in place within the hardware, this feature could merely be introduced via a future iOS update. Later in the early months of 2022, iOS 15.4 is expected. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Apple could begin launching this feature then or perhaps wait until the summer.