瞄准移动支付市场，苹果钱包蓄势待发

    苹果（Apple）似乎要改变美国人的支付方式了。或者至少，他们准备尝试一下。

    消息源确认了iPhone 6将包含一项新技术，可以将移动设备作为钱包使用，从而在商店购买物品。这项移动钱包技术将采用NFC，也就是利用无线电来发射数据的近场通信技术（near field communications）。该技术已被越来越多的销售终端系统所采用。匿名消息源表示，iPhone将采用Touch ID指纹扫描来鉴别用户身份，苹果也将与信用卡公司合作，扩大这项服务的应用范围。

    苹果的一位女发言人拒绝对此发表评论。

    苹果通过iTunes账户，已经获得了全球范围内大约8亿用户的支付授权。公司要争取主宰移动支付领域，这也早在人们预料之中。

    尽管苹果此举必然会引起移动钱包市场的震动，但苹果能否成功却远未确定。数字钱包的实用性究竟如何尚存疑问，而其他移动支付手段也正在逐渐兴起。

    确实，这不是一个移动支付市场，而是好几个移动支付市场。

    Apple appears poised to change the way Americans pay for stuff. Or at least, it will try.

    Sources confirm several reports that the iPhone 6, expected to be introduced on Tuesday, will include technology that will turn the device into a mobile wallet that could be used to pay for items at retail stores. Apple’s mobile wallet will be based on NFC, or near field communications, a technology that uses radio communications to transmit data and that works in a growing number of point-of-sale systems. The iPhone’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner will be used to authenticate users, and Apple AAPL -0.83% has teamed up with credit card companies to make the service broadly useful, the sources, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, said.

    An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

    Apple, which already has payment credentials for some 800 million people globally through iTunes accounts, has long been expected to make a bid to dominate mobile payments.

    While Apple’s move is certain to shake up the mobile wallet market, the company’s success is far from guaranteed. And it comes at a time when the utility of digital wallets is being called into question, even as other forms of mobile payments are taking off.

    Indeed, there is no longer a mobile payments market, but rather, several mobile payments markets.