Apple has acquired Mobeewave, a Canadian startup that works on a technology to turn iPhones into mobile payment terminals. The development was first reported by Bloomberg. The acquisition could help Apple expand its reach with merchants for Apple Pay.
The company’s technology, which only requires NFC chip to work, allows users to tap on their smartphone or credit card to another device for processing payment. Since all iPhones after iPhone 6 come with NFC chip, it is compatible with all the iPhones currently available in the market.
As per the report from Bloomberg, Apple is retaining the entire team of Mobeewave, which employs around 100 people, all working from the Montreal office. It is also being reported that the office will remain as it is.
EDITOR’S PICK: Huawei to announce EMUI 11, HarmonyOS 2.0 and HMS Core 5.0 at its developer conference in September
Interestingly, Samsung had partnered with last year to enable Samsung smartphones to use the company’s technology. This resulted in a pilot program with over 10,000 downloads of Samsung’s POS app, which smaller businesses used to boost sales. Samsung’s venture capital arm is also an investor in the company.
Apple has a history of buying startups and then turn their technology into features for the company’s own products. Thus, we could see the use of Mobeewave’s technology in Apple Pay, allowing anyone with an iPhone to accept payments without additional hardware.
UP NEXT: Apple’s Secure Enclave chip reportedly found to have ‘unpatchable’ exploit
