The Apple CEO was quoted to say that the technology and its use is still “in its infancy”.
CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, has revealed that while he does see a future for mobile payments, its current status remains an immature market, which has led many in the technology industry to believe that his company is not planning to make any considerable moves into that sector within the near future.
The CEO feels that the market is only just taking its first baby steps and that it is far from mainstream.
In an interview, Cook expressed that “I think it’s in its infancy,” and that he feels “it’s just getting started and just out of the starting block.” The answer to these questions have led the wheels of the rumor mills to start spinning again, as many have long been speculating regarding the intention of the company to begin its entry into the mobile payments market.
This is only the latest in many attempts the industry has made to determine Apple’s mobile payments intentions.
Before this, one of the primary guesses that the industry made regarding Apple’s intentions to start playing in mobile payments was whether or not the iPhone 5 would include NFC technology. Many were firmly convinced that there was no way that this device could be released without near field communication and were completely taken aback when it was.
At that time, though, Apple did introduce its latest Passbook technology. Though this did not allow for mobile payments, it did give users the opportunity to carry digital version of their passes, tickets, and loyalty cards, all in one place.
Many also believed that this would be the first introduction of the company into the sphere, as they believed that Passbook could be updated, at some point down the road, in order to include credit and/or debit card abilities for mobile payments. However, following the most recent statements from Cook, it is looking less likely that this will be the case, at least within the next upcoming devices. It seems unlikely that he would publically downplay the importance of a service or a feature not too long before it will be included in their technology.
