We are a day away from Apple’s big reveal and the leaks are getting more and more interesting. While the world is obsessed with the size of the phone, what I personally am looking forward to are the new technologies that will hopefully propel the industry forward. Case in point: mobile payments.
According to a report by Bank Innovation, Apple will be using NFC along with tokenization technology for the mobile payments, and likely to be implemented in the iWatch in addition the to iPhone 6. Patents for Apple dating back to 2009 related to this process have also been uncovered.
The tokenization process is preferred by financial institutions because the 16-digit card number is replaced by a one-time-use complex code that would be worthless to fraudsters even if the communication is intercepted.
But in addition to mobile payments, tokenization can be used in broader aspects, such as serving as access to hotel rooms, transits, and building access. This means that he iPhone 6 and future iPhones with the NFC/Tokenization technology can effectively replace the many access cards you have with you.
It’s exciting and frightening at the same time, but Apple would be smart to further lock in users to their ecosystem while simultaneously upping the ante for competitors and the industry. Whether all of this will be implemented remains to be seen tomorrow.
Source: Bank Innovation
