We’ve known that Apple has been interested in mobile payments for some time. Now the company is interviewing potential candidates to lead the initiative, according to a new report from Re/code.
Apple’s head of e-commerce, Jennifer Bailey, has reportedly been meeting with executives in the payments industry “to fill head of product and head of business development positions.”
While Apple’s “ambitions” are described as “very, very serious,” it’s likely that any sort of mobile payment system from Apple won’t come out anytime soon.
Back in January, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is “laying the groundwork for an expanded mobile-payments service.” The 600 million iTunes Store accounts Apple has on file would ideally work to purchase physical goods and services with something like an iPhone as the conduit.
Tim Cook has said that handling mobile payments was one of the main reasons for creating Touch ID, the fingerprint authenticator in the iPhone 5s.”The mobile payments area in general is one that we’ve been intrigued with,” he said during Apple’s last earnings call. “It was one of the thoughts behind Touch ID.”
Apple has recently been in talks with established players in the payments industry. PayPal and Apple have allegedly been talking behind closed doors, and there have even been rumors that an acquisition of Square was considered.
Since Apple is still looking to related fill positions, it’s safe to say that it’ll be awhile before its mobile payment plans see the light of day.
Source: Re/code
