Apple has always had an approach-avoidance conflict about mobile payment technology for its hardware and software products.
While companies like Google are already afield with products like Google Wallet, Apple has been tiptoeing around the issue, seemingly setting up a future hardware solution by launching its Passbook app, which is now built in to iOS 7, and through its touch ID verification home button feature on the iPhone 5S.
Mobile payment systems cover credit card transactions, transfer of bank funds to another entity's bank account (such as paying the babysitter through a smartphone), online shopping and bill payments. Apple's Passbook app will probably evolve to become a virtual repository for credit cards, gift cards, loyalty program cards, airline tickets and more.
It remains to be seen if iOS 8 and the iPhone 6 will support near-field communication (NFC) protocols, which is what is really needed for a fully featured mobile payment system. It would seem that mobile payment capability would also be a key component of a likely Apple smart watch product release this year. It is possible that Apple is developing a proprietary NFC-like protocol, since Apple is renowned as a company that likes to do it their way.
In the category of mobile payments, near-field communication technology, or whatever Apple comes up with to replicate it, allows the transmission of data from mobile devices to a payment-processing device in a store or business. It is based on proximity parameters between sending device and receiving device and is (usually) an automatic and hands-free transaction.
Apple is obsessed with the security of mobile payment technology, as well it should be. Hackers have already developed devices that can pull data from smartphones just by standing close to an unsuspecting victim. This is one of the reasons Apple is investing in touch ID technology for its mobile devices.
From a marketing standpoint, a mobile payment system that has few takers on the recipient side will not go far. Retailers and other businesses have mostly not yet bought into the technology and equipment that would be required to join in.
Apple, though, is believed to be in talks with the major credit card companies to co-develop a system that works and is secure for everybody. The company is also looking at making its next generation of mobile devices far more resistant than competing products to malicious intentions through both hardware and software security and encryption solutions. After all, the mobile device manufacturer that can offer the most peace of mind to its customers will get the worm, at least.
