Apple (AAPL) has introduced a new “Tap to Pay” feature for the iPhone that allows people to buy goods from merchants in the U.S. by tapping their phones together. The payment method also works with contactless credit cards.
The upgrade effectively turns iPhones into point-of-sale terminals without additional hardware.
Apple said that Stripe would be the first payment operator to offer the service, and that it would be integrated into Shopify’s (SHOP) point-of-sale products.
The service, currently limited to the U.S., will use the iPhone’s NFC chip, and will also accept Apple Pay, Visa (V), American Express (AXP), and Mastercard (MA).
Tap to Pay is Apple’s latest financial services innovation. The company currently operates Apple Pay, a contactless payment service, Apple Pay Cash, a peer-to-peer payments service, and Apple Card, an iPhone app-oriented credit card operated in conjunction with investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS).
Apple said the new feature would be accessed through third-party apps, which will be released later this year. Other payment companies and app developers will be able to develop apps that access the Tap to Pay feature in a forthcoming version of iOS, the iPhone operating system.
