Apple will transform the iPhone into a point of sale terminal (TPV) this year, although at the moment only in the USA.
A future software update will allow small shops or sellers in street stalls using the phone’s NFC reader to accept payments from a contactless card or from another phone.
The function, which will be known as Tap to Pay, will not depend on an apple’s own app nor from the Apple Pay service, although it is compatible with this payment platform and other virtual portfolios.
It is a set of APIs (anchors that developers can use to access functions within the operating system) that third parties will be able to use in their applications.
The first company that this function will use will be stripe, a popular payment process platform.
Thanks to Stripe, the service will be integrated within the Shopify app, which in the US use many small shops and online companies for the management of your business.
Apple ensures that other companies and payment gateways can also be added to the service.
Since these apps require registering and demonstrating that the company is legitimate, the risk that a phone can be used fraudulently to accept unwanted payments is low, as with conventional TPVs.
Apple also points out that the other great advantage of the service will be privacy.
“All transactions made with Tap to Pay are encrypted and processed using the secure phone processor enclave, and just as with Apple Pay, Apple does not know what is being purchased or who is buying it,” explain from the company.
Tap To Pay will be available at first only on the iPhone, which limits the type of scenarios in which it can function as an alternative to a conventional TPV.
Even so, Apple plans to implement the function in all its stores this year.
The service will require an iPhone XS, released in 2018, or a posterior model to work, as they are the only devices that have an integrated NFC reader.
