Mobeewave helps handsets act like little cash registers. Apple reportedly purchased this company, which could lead to iPhones able to easily receive money from credit cards with just a tap.
Apple paid about $100 million for Mobeewave, according to Bloomberg. The Canadian company is still up and running. It hasn’t been folded into Apple.
Pay money to iPhone with NFC via Apple Pay?
It’s not yet clear exactly what Cupertino’s plans are for the technology it acquired with this startup.
Mobeewave’s system only works with credit cards that have NFC wireless chips in them. And the Apple Card doesn’t. The company uses the Apple Pay application on iPhones for contactless payment transactions.
Perhaps, the plan is to use Mobeewave tech to let one iPhone transfer money from a credit card to another iPhone over a short-range NFC wireless connection, just by tapping the two handsets together.
Or a future version of the Apple Card could get support for contactless payments via NFC.
iPhone users can already send money to each other via Apple Pay Cash, but this money can not come from a credit card.
Enabling iPhones to act as mobile credit card terminals could be a boon to small business owners and entrepreneurs. But it would be direct competition for Square, a company that lets stores take credit cards with just an iPhone or Android.
