Apple Doubles Its Attack On Traditional Finance: The End Of PoS Systems?

Apple Inc. AAPL expanded its efforts to make its mobile devices an alternative to traditional merchant point-of-sale (PoS) devices facilitating in-store card payments.

What Happened: In a Thursday announcement, Adyen announced that Apple enabled it to use the near-field communication (NFC) antenna on its mobile devices to process contactless payments. This is the second firm that the Cupertino giant allowed to use its devices as a PoS system and follows an authorization to do the same given to Stripe back in February.

The "Tap to Pay on iPhone" feature allows compatible iPhones to accept payments through Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets with no extra hardware. Long story short, this feature allows the iPhone to work as a contactless-only PoS system.

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The solution is expected to allow small businesses to accept NFC contactless payments through supported iOS apps with an ‌iPhone‌ XS or newer by asking customers to simply hold their own ‌iPhone‌, Apple Watch, digital wallet or contactless card up to the mobile device. Adyen noted it works with enterprise customers and commerce platforms, such as Lightspeed Commerce and NewStore, the latter already using it with Vince, an apparel brand that is part of Vince Holding Company VNCE.

Stephan Schambach, founder and CEO of NewStore, explained, "We have already put iPhones in the hands of thousands of store associates. Now, these devices can become payment terminals with no additional hardware." 

Photo: Courtesy Apple