Apple NFC Payments Tech Could Lift NXP, Visa, MasterCard, Says Morgan Stanley
By Tiernan Ray
May 20, 2014, 10:41 A.M. ET
Barron's
Morgan Stanley analysts Craig Hettenbach, Joseph Moore, Katy Huberty, Smittipon Srethapramote, and Betsy Graseck today issued a group report reflecting on implications of a possible move into mobile payments using NFC technology.
The authors think it reasonable to assume Apple is going to soon introduce NFC in its mobile devices, after the technology has been on Google ( GOOG) Android-based devices for some years, writing “Historically, Apple tends to adopt new technologies after initial growing pains are worked out, and as they are about to reach an inflection point in adoption.”
“Recent news on partnerships, potential licenses, and patent filings suggest NFC could be reaching that inflection point.”
Huberty sees a boost to Apple, in allowing it to know more about its users:
Mobile payments is a major opportunity for Apple to improve user experiences and potentially add a new revenue stream. The company has historically been very good at integrating hardware and software, and we believe it can further differentiate itself and increase/preserve the value of its devices by adding services. Mobile payments can help Apple collect more data on consumers in order to create more relevant and useful recommendations and advertisements, and create additional revenue opportunities for developers and other partners, especially brick-and-mortar retail.
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