Apple’s been long rumored to be working on an iWallet that would let you purchase things like concert tickets, food, airplane tickets, and other things with your iPhone. Patents have been filed, granted, and talked about ad nauseum already. What we haven’t talked about, or even noticed up until this point is exactly how Apple plans on giving users the ability to make payments on the fly. Building a new, worldwide payment scheme isn’t an easy job.
We got an email from Jack Purcher (of Patently Apple Fame) today that pointed out something that most of us have been missing for a while now—a possible solution to the payment problem.
In a patent uncovered on Patently Apple, Purcher noticed that Apple’s been working on an ejectable component for their devices, much like the current SIM card tray in the iPhone. The patent points out that the tray could be used for: “integrated circuit cards (ICCs), chip cards, memory cards, flash memory cards, microprocessor cards, smart cards, such as subscriber identity module (SIM) cards, or combinations thereof, containing electronic circuitry.”
iWallet, meet iPayment solution. You know what has an “Embedded Integrated Circuit Card?” A credit card. Apple could be on the verge of turning your iPhone or iPod touch into an iWallet with a legitimate iPayment scheme that would fit into the vast network of vendors who accept credit cards.
The iWallet might be a lot closer than we expected, and this patent kind of hints at a viable solution to the payment problem. Why would Apple need to create a new payment network when the could easily piggy back on the current credit card system?
Article Via Patently Apple
