In advance of the touted iPhone launch today Marco Veremis, CEO and Founder of Upstream looks into the strategy behind Apple’s move towards creating their own payments platform, and the difficulties this model may have in transferring to the emerging markets.
Aggressive anticipation has surrounded the launch of the new iPhone, which we expect to be unveiled by Apple on September 9th. Rumours suggest the phone will boast a bigger screen and an NFC chip, and there is even the possibility of a landmark piece of wearable tech – the iWatch – being launched too. We can safely pre-empt that the new iPhone will do well in the west, a market which provides low-hanging fruit for Apple.
What’s particularly interesting is the expected inclusion of the NFC chip in the new iPhone. This, along with Apple’s recent partnerships with Visa, MasterCard and AmEx, points to Apple making a major move within the payments arena, by creating a new mobile payments platform.
Apple is of course in an excellent position to launch its own mobile wallet, thanks to having more than 800 million credit cards on file from iTunes. The Apple mobile payments platform would allow users to use their iPhone to pay for items in-store, without having to use cash or card. If Apple succeeds in driving mass conversion to mobile payments, it will be a significant achievement, and one which will alter the western retail landscape tremendously.
The NFC feature may have its utility muted within the emerging markets however, where the mobile payments infrastructure is very different. With far fewer consumers owning a debit/credit card, or even having access a bank account, Apple will struggle to have the same influence on mobile retail payments. Partnering instead with native mobile operators in order to spur changes to payments methods would be one way around this, which circumvents the need for cards to make purchases.
By Marco Veremis
CEO and founder
Upstream