Mobile Payments for iPhone, iPad

Apple may launch a system for making retail purchases directly from iPhones and iPads later this year, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Such a system would be dependent on near-field communication (NFC) to make payments. A consultant told Bloomberg that Apple will introduce NFC radios in the next iPhone and iPad, and that it's developing an NFC payment terminal for retailers.

There have been many attempts in recent years to introduce a cellphone-based payment system based on NFC, but they've been hampered by a dearth of phones with the technology and a lack of support from service providers. However, those barriers are slowly being lifted—Google notably built NFC into the Nexus S phone, and new NFC systems have major backers—lending weight to the possibility of an NFC-equipped iPhone.

Apple has another incentive to put NFC in its mobile devices, as the company already runs an entire digital payment system in place via iTunes, and millions of people store their credit-card information there. When buying something at a story, instead of using a physical credit card users would simply hold up their phone to an NFC terminal, and it would tap into the phone owner's iTunes account.

Apple could also encourage users to use bank-account information, since recent legislation pushed forward by Senator Dick Durbin limits the fees that retailers pay on debit-card purchases. Apple, like all merchants, must pay credit-card companies fees for every transaction, and having customers use bank accounts instead would reduce its operating costs.

In addition to purchases, NFC tech on phones has the potential to let users easily access merchants' rewards programs and even enable targeted advertising. Advertisers would likely pay a premium for personalized ads that specifically promote services directly where customers are spending money. Apple launched an advertising platform specifically for its iOS devices,called iAd, last year.