In recent years, there have been numerous discussions about the possibility of making payments using iDevices and NFC technology. For several years it has been said that Apple is going to implement NFC technology in iDevices, iPhone 5 being apparently tested with such chips, and turn our terminals into digital wallets, but this will not happen soon. Those from Wall Street Journal they analyzed Apple's strategy, they talked with some people inside the company and now they say that Apple is not interested in turning our terminals into digital wallets because for now the market is not mature enough. Phill Schiller stated in an interview that for now the providers of mobile payment solutions are fighting for supremacy in this market and Apple does not want to enter that fight.
Holding back in mobile payments was a deliberate strategy, the result of deep discussion last year. Some Apple engineers argued for a more aggressive approach that would integrate payments more directly. But Apple executives chose the go-slow approach for now. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the decision-making process. Apple's head of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, in an interview last month, said that digital-wallet mobile-payment services are "all fighting over their piece of the pie, and we aren't doing that."
Although there were intense discussions within Apple regarding the possible implementation of a third-party mobile payment system, Apple management decided to offer users passbook: application semi-useless that allows them to go to stores and only use coupons to pay for something. Although the possible development of an internal payment system, the use of iTunes or the transformation of the Apple company into a bank was discussed, the management decided that for now it is not the time to implement such a system in iDevices.
In the end, the people from Apple chose Passbook, although they tested various NFC systems, and I think that, at least for the next year, we have to be satisfied with only that, although in Romania the system is completely useless and I don't think it ever will be useful.
