Apple to Launch Peer To Peer Payment App

Apple’s P2p payment app may be the first step to a cashless economy. Find out how that’s possible right here.

 

Last year, Apple entered the mobile payments industry by launching Apple Pay. Now it’s reported that the company is planning to expand those services to include peer to peer payments. At the moment, Apple is still in talks with several big banks like Well Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, Capital One, and J.P. Morgan so there’s no official announcement yet.
But here are some facts that you need to know:

 

The idea’s not new.
What Apple is offering is basically to allow a person to pay another person using their iPhone without having to pay any fees. You just need a checking or debit account, and the app can take care of the money transfer.

 

The idea is not new at all. In fact, Paypal’s Venmo is doing quite well and it processed $2.4 billion in total payments in 2014 alone. Venmo also incorporates a social aspect to the transaction, which means that you can share it on Facebook.

 

But who cares if it’s not a new concept? Apple is a trendsetter and people are always eager to be part of all its innovations. Consider the launch of Apple Pay, for example. Google Wallet was introduced 3 years earlier and yet Apple’s entry into mobile payments stimulated the market and made its use much more popular. Now Apple Pay accounts for $45 billion in retail transactions.

 

So Venmo’s dominance in P2P payments may not even be a problem. If Apple enters the scene, it will still dominate the market.

 

It will use iMessage.
iMessage is a native app of iPhone, Macs and iPads, and hundreds of millions of people use these devices. It’s been found that it’s the favorite messaging service of 60% of teens today. Now imagine if people started using this popular messaging service as a way to transfer cash from one person to another. How convenient is that?

 

Apple is trusted with security. Although its iCloud services do have its share of problems, Apple is not beset with hacking troubles as often as its competitors in the tech industry. That can make this service even more popular, because of its inherently trusted security systems.

 

It can seriously damage PayPal and Square.
Basically, the entry of Apple can pretty much make everyone abandon Venmo and Square in the same way that people left MySpace when Facebook became popular.

 

The End of Cash?
This prediction seems a bit extreme, but it’s becoming more and more plausible. After all, people find cash transactions awkward and risky on a personal level. And if you pay with cash for large purchases, you get a lot of suspicious looks and you might even get a visit from law enforcement (try buying a brand new car with cash and see for yourself). But with Apple’s P2P payment app, you can pay with cash directly from your bank account, using only your smartphone. It’s safe and convenient.

 

Watch out for further developments – it seems that the future of cash is being decided by Apple, a handful of large banks, and teens who love iMessage.