We all knew it, butApplefinallymade it official: it will now allow businesses to accept card payments throughiPhones.
It refers to the function as Tap to Pay.
All a business needs to do is download the associated app and get going.
The NFC reader in the machine will do the rest.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
Instead of providing its own infrastructure, Apple is working with other companies.
Think of Tap to Pay as a feature its offering to digital payments businesses.
On first inspection, it appears Apple has given away a golden ticket.
Why allow other platforms a slice of this delicious money-making pie?
But the more you think about it, the more it makes sense.
Secondly, this allows Apple to sneakily enter the space without making a huge splash or substantial investment.
Its setting Apple up for future dominance.
Lets consider these points together.
This likely includes Stripe, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, and PayPal Zettle.
These companies can make merchants happy by allowing them to use their iPhones to accept payments.
Other digital payments companies can worry about that.
We can assume Apple is already working on its own version of these systems.
And its going to be watching and learning all it can from the companies using Tap to Pay.
It will continue allowing other POS companies to use its Tap to Pay feature thus avoiding immediate antitrust lawsuits.
Apple is playing the long game.
You dont need me to tell you how smart that is.
