Apple could be looking to expand Apple Pay beyond phone-based NFC payments. The company is reportedly working on an Apple Pay-branded credit card, which is being developed in partnership with Goldman Sachs.
The report comes from The Wall Street Journal and notes that the partnership between the two will extend to other services. For example, Goldman Sachs will reportedly offer in-store loans to Apple customers who are buying new products. According to the report, the two are still deciding on the specific terms of the deal, but Apple is aiming to release the card to customers as soon as early 2019.
Of course, Apple does already offer an Apple Rewards credit card with Barclays, but the deal with Goldman Sachs is reportedly aimed at offering customers a cheaper financing deal. The new card will replace the old card as the official Apple Rewards credit card.
Apple is said to be shifting its focus toward growing businesses, and Apple Pay is one of those businesses. It’s believed that the deal with Goldman Sachs could help Apple expand awareness about Apple Pay. According to recent reports, only around 16 percent of iPhone users around the world use Apple Pay — though researchers expect widespread adoption of mobile payments in the next three to five years. Apple Pay first launched in 2014, though at the time it was only available for a few banks, and only in the U.S. Since then it has grown to dozens of countries around the world, with support for even more banks and financial institutions.
Still, the service received pushback from the likes of Target and Walmart, which are attempting to develop their own mobile payment systems. There are also other mobile payment services, from companies like Google, PayPal, and so on. Apple, however, says it’s not too worried about slow adoption — last spring the company noted that it thought mobile payments were on track to become users’ primary payment system.
We’ll have to wait and see exactly what the Apple Pay-branded card ends up looking like and whether it’s linked to Apple Pay in more than just branding. As mentioned, we may not have to wait long — early 2019 seems to be the current target release date.
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