Mobile Minute
Apple is reportedly teaming up with major credit card issuers for mobile payments. Visa, MasterCard and American Express have all been named as expected partners in an iOS mobile payments platform.
Apple already has roughly 800,000 credit cards on file through iTunes. But it may need a partnership with the issuers to process payments and accelerate its relationships with retailers.
In one week Apple is expected to unveil its newest iPhone, including an NFC (near field communication) chip to enable contactless payments. A number of Android phones have had NFC chips for some time, but Apple has never launched NFC in an iPhone. Users have been able to buy special iPhone cases that include the chips.
The major credit card companies have been eyeing mobile payments for some time. Some of their biggest customers have teamed up to form a mobile payments venture that could take business away from the credit card issuers. Partnerships with Apple could be a good defense. American Express already has an agreement in place with a competing mobile payments platform. The Isis consortium created by Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile US signed American Express as a partner last year.
In other news, Netflix has a new partnership with Facebook. For more on that see the video below.
