Paypal expressed willingness to join Apple in its plan to expand its mobile payment system.
Last week, Apple reportedly announced its plan to expand its mobile system service to ease its customers' difficulty in paying and purchasing specific goods and services. It even appointed its longtime executive Jennifer Bailey to lead the construction of a payment business within the technology giant.
During the company's earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook did not confirm the news but did seem to signify that the company is working out on something related to payments.
"We're seeing that people love being able to buy content, whether it's music or movies or books, from their iPhone, using Touch ID. It's incredibly simple and easy and elegant. And it's clear that there's a lot of opportunity there," Cook said.
"The mobile payments are in general is one that we've been intrigued with and that was one of the thoughts behind the Touch ID. But we're not limiting ourselves just to that."
Apple's plan is to let customers shop and pay for goods in physical stores through iPhones, but it is not clear yet what applications or technologies the company would use for its services. Yet, in a recent Apple patent application file, it said that it can use technologies like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or near field communication for in-store transactions.
A fingerprint reader for security and an iBeacon location-sensor that senses when someone is close by were also mentioned in the patent application.
Aside from those technologies, a number of high-ranking personalities in the payment industry told Re/Code that the e-commerce business PayPal is willing lending its helpful hands to bring Apple's plans to life. The eBay-owned PayPal is enthusiastic to white-label parts of its payment service, including fraud detection, back-end infrastructure, and processing of payments, to be used in Apple's mobile payment system.
However, two of these sources believe that it is unlikely to happen.
Amy Bessette, a spokesperson for Apple, and Jennifer Hakes, a spokesperson for PayPal, declined to comment on the reports and speculations.
