"By encouraging consumers to use cheaper methods -- such as tapping their bank accounts directly, which is how many purchases are made via PayPal -- Apple could cut its own
costs and those of retailers selling Apple products," writes Bloomberg.
"If Apple can nail Near-Field Communication (NFC) and tie it directly into their already-established iTunes
payment system ... It could change everything," writes TechCrunch. "It could transform Apple from the biggest technology company in the world, to the biggest company in the world, period. By far."
"Not content to take your money, now Apple reportedly wants to be your money," Fortune suggests.
As Crone tells Bloomberg, NFC technology could also be used to improve targeted advertising.
"It would allow ads to know exactly where you are and potentially fetch higher
rates in the process," notes VentureBeat. "Since NFC requires close contact to transfer information it could be much more useful
to targeted ads than relying on GPS alone -- which notoriously has trouble locating users in busy cities and indoors."
Along with the fact that NFC is already showing up in Android
devices, Apple has every reason to adopt the technology -- "Especially because it represents a major opportunity to capitalize on Apple's existing success with digital transactions made through the
iTunes and App Stores," GigaOm writes.
As PCWorld points out: "When [then Google CEO Eric] Schmidt introduced NFC to the Android crowd, he mentioned that 'People don't understand how much
more powerful these devices are going to be.'"
As a mobile payments provider for bars and restaurants, I am very pleased to see the mobile payments conversation continue and for the media to be intensely interested in consumer adoption of new mobile payment technologies.
I recently posted on a Mashable blog about our (TabbedOut) philosophy for how best to drive mobile payments.
http://mashable.com/2011/01/06/smartphone-payment-security/