The rumor: Apple is preparing to ship a new feature that will turn your iPhone into a payment terminal, according to Mark Gurman (87% accurate, via Bloomberg).
- When the new feature ships later this year, you’ll be able to use the NFC functionality on your iPhone to accept payments from NFC-enabled credit cards…essentially replacing traditional point-of-sale (POS) or payment terminals (pictured above)
- The new feature could be included in iOS 15.4, which is expected to launch in beta soon
Our take: This is…kind of an insanely big deal? I’m surprised I haven’t seen more folks lose their minds over the fact that, within a few months, someone will be able to tap their credit card on the back of your phone and pay you for something…with no additional hardware. I’m calling it now: when this ships, it will be incredibly detrimental for the likes of Square and Shopify.