Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is planning to advance its mobile-payment efforts, according to a report by The Wall street Journal. The iPhone maker already allows its users to purchase music, books and app through iTunes account.
Apple to compete with PayPal
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is trying to include physical goods and services to its list apart from the virtual goods. For instance, it could offer apparels or a taxi ride through an iTunes account. Eddy Cue, the Apple executive heading iTunes and App store division said that he has been in discussion with the other industry peers regarding the new services.
Jennifer Bailey, who is looking after the Apple’s online store, have been given an additional responsibility of building the payments business, according to the journal. Apple will provide greater benefits to hundreds of millions of credit cards owners by starting the mobile payment services. Also, it will stand in the direct competition with already established players; Stripe and PayPal.
Stripe has collected $80 million in funding at a valuation of $1.75 billion. Recently, Carl Icahn said that eBay should spin off its PayPal division, and also indicated that Apple would prove to be a god player in mobile payment service.
Payment, TV segment holds potential – Icahn
In his letter, Icahn said that the shares of Apple are undervalued, and are best for purchase at current levels. He said that borrowing money before the Fed scales back its stimulus will also be a better option. He mentioned the various areas where Apple could register growth like wearable, TVs and a payment platform.
Apart from the payment option, Icahn thinks that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has a bright future in TV. He said that Apple has shipped 238 million TVs in 2012, and it has potential to sell 25 million new ultra high definition televisions at $1,600 per unit as the company has already garnered maximum market share in smartphones and tablets.
“At a gross margin of 37.7%, which would be consistent with that of the overall company, such a debut would add $40 billion of revenues and $15 billion to operating income annually.”
Overall, Icahn is optimistic about the company in payment and television segments. It would be interesting to see how Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) plans to capitalize on these areas.
