Apple buys startup that can turn iPhones into payment terminals

Mobeewave’s app allows users to process payments by tapping their credit card or smartphone on another phone

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI:

Apple Inc. has acquired Mobeewave Inc., a platform that allows any mobile app to accept in-person payments with no extra hardware, reports Bloomberg.

Mobeewave’s technology allows customers to process payments by tapping their credit card or smartphone on another phone. The system works with an app and doesn’t require hardware beyond a Near Field Communications, or NFC, chip, which iPhones have included since 2014.

Reports suggest Apple paid about $100 million for the startup. Apple has retained Mobeewave’s employees.

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” an Apple spokesman said.

Integrating Mobeewave could let iPhone users accept payments without additional hardware.

This would put Apple into more direct competition with Square Inc., a leading provider of payment hardware and software for smartphones and tablets.

On its website, the Montreal-based Mobeewave shows that users can accept card payments with a tap on their phone.

Apple Inc last week delivered blowout quarterly results, reporting year-on-year revenue gains across every category and in every geography as consumers working and learning from home during the COVID-19 pandemic turned to its products and services.

The results, which included iPhone sales some $4 billion above of analyst expectations, came on the same day that US gross domestic product collapsed at a 32.9% annualized rate last quarter, the nation’s worst economic performance since the Great Depression.