Apple’s Mobeewave acquisition marks turning point for payments, phos says
By Sunniva Kolostyak
Apple’s recent decision to acquire Mobeewave, a contactless payment acceptance solutions provider, is a critical vote of confidence for Software-based Point of Sale (SoftPOS) technology and its role in the future of payments, according to Brad Hyett, CEO of phos.
The $100 million deal comes as the past few months has pushed forward the demand for frictionless and simple payments methods via contactless and mobile solutions Hyett, CEO of card acceptance and payments provider phos, explained.
“In short, SoftPOS technology is the future of payments and it can be deployed quickly and effectively in response to this surge in demand we have seen as a result of the pandemic,” he told IBS Intelligence.
Through the acquisition, Apple is planning to transform iPhones into mobile payment terminals with plans to remove the need for additional hardware in letting anyone with an iPhone accept payments.
The strategic move to acquire Mobeewave therefore signifies the convergence and development of two industry trends in the PayTech space, which have only been further accelerated in a post-COVID-19 world, Hyett said.
“The first is that every business is going to become a payments business in the near future due to this demand for cashless and contactless payment methods, and the second is that the acceptance of payments directly onto a mobile device is gaining extraordinary momentum.”
He continued: “Apple’s acquisition of Mobeewave marks a true turning point for the payments industry as it highlights a critical vote of confidence for SoftPOS solutions, and the unstoppable acceleration of this next-generation technology on a global level. Looking one step ahead, we hope that Apple follows this up by opening the NFC to foster great collaboration and innovation amongst the leaders in this sector.”
Hyett added that the increased digital transformation of all financial services through FinTech is the quickest route to financial inclusion. As a result, any innovation in the payments industry brings the world a step closer to truly democratising payment technology, as evolution in the space “always has ease and accessibility front of mind”.
“SoftPOS can accelerate this shift even further as the technology is, by nature, really simple and cheap to deploy for any size of business and for consumers to use too. We hope that this move by Apple paves the way for the eventual development of a device-agnostic NFC-enabled payments solution which will leverage the one piece of technology that most people have in their pockets already: their phones,” Hyett said.
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