Small businesses will soon be able to use iPhones to accept payments without the need for additional Square-style devices, according to a Bloomberg report.
The feature has been expected since Apple bought contactless payment startup Mobeewave in 2020, and Bloomberg now says it may come via a software update "in the coming months."
Mobeewave has previously worked with Samsung on similar NFC functionality, experimenting with a system called Samsung POS in the startup's home country of Canada in 2019 before launching it worldwide, The verege reports.
Samsung POS enabled Samsung phones to accept payments directly from contactless cards and NFC payment services such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay.
The Bloomberg report says it's unclear whether Mobeewave's technology will be classified as part of Apple Pay, or whether Apple will use its own payment network or start with an existing partner. It is said that Mobeewave employees have been working in Apple's payments division since the acquisition.
iOS 15.3 was released even though it was a more critical bug fix than a feature-driven point release, according to Bloomberg Apple is expected to release the first beta of iOS 15.4 sometime soon, which may be when we get our first look at the contactless payment feature.