Apple is taking steps to enter the world of mobile payments, hoping to add competition to an already competitive market that includes PayPal, Square and Stripe, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal was listening in to the tech giant’s earnings conference call and reported Apple chief executive officer (CEO) Tim Cook was very interested in the idea of mobile payments.
“We’re seeing people are loving to be able to buy content, whether it’s music or movies or books from the iPhones using Touch ID. It’s incredibly simple and easy and elegant,” Cook said. “The mobile payment area in general is one that we’ve been intrigued with. That was one of the thoughts behind Touch ID. You can tell by looking at the demographics of our customers and the amount of commerce that goes through iOS devices versus the competition that it’s a big opportunity.”
TouchID was launched on the iPhone 5s at the end of last year and enables users to make purchases on the iTunes Store and unlock their smartphones using fingerprints.
However, soon after its launch Chaos Computer Club announced it was able to hack the biometric fingerprint scanner using a fake finger, calling into question the legitimacy of its security protocols.
The company, which is notoriously secret regarding new releases, has not made any further comments regarding its mobile payment ambitions.
