Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is expected to enter a partnership agreement on e-payment with Visa Inc (NYSE:V) by analyst at Pacific Crest.
In a note to investors today, Pacific Crest analysts Josh Beck and Andy Hargreaves together with their colleagues believed that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Visa Inc (NASDAQ:V) will likely enter an e-payments partnership agreement, and they expect the companies to make an announcement as early as this fall.
“We think a partnership between Apple (AAPL) and Visa (V) would make strategic sense and believe an announcement could happen as early as this fall,” according to the analysts. Beck and his fellow analysts suggested that next generation model of the iPhone will be integrated with a contactless payments technology.
According to Beck and his fellow analysts, “New security models could lower adoption hurdles for mobile payments at physical retailers and expand the Visa platform, enabling new commerce opportunities for technology giants, merchants and issuers.”
The analysts noted that security played a key role in the establishing mobile payment initiatives, and complex business models prevented companies to scale faster in the past. According to them, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) used a host-card emulation to reduce business model friction while PayPal depended on distribution partnerships with terminal providers and networks.
Beck and his colleagues emphasized Visa Inc (NYSE:V) could help Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) “gain scale more rapidly” with its “token service.” According to them, “A combination of cloud-based (HCE) and physical (SE or TEE) seems like a plausible security strategy for Apple.”
There had been reports that Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is negotiating an agreement with several companies providing payment services including Visa Inc (NYSE:V) to bring their services to the iPhone 6. The tech giant is expected to roll out the iPhone 6 in September.
Separately, Jim Cramer, the host of MAD Money on CNBC and a former hedge fund manager commented that a partnership between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Visa Inc (NYSELV) is possible citing the reason that the credit card company’s CEO, Charles W. Scharf mentioned something innovation in mobile payments during its recent conference call.
“In the Visa call, which I liked, Charles W. Scharf talked about the revolution is coming in mobile payment and they keep thinking what is the handset; who is going to embrace it? This one says it is going to be Apple,” said Cramer.
In addition, Cramer emphasized that a mobile payment agreement between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Visa Inc (NYSE:V) has all the factors of a “game changer.”
