The recently granted patent could show how Apple will handle mobile payments, provided the company does enter the market. US Patent No. 8,255,323 "motion-based payment confirmation" may seem harmless at first glance, but the invention may well be implemented in NFC - managed, mobile payment solutions.
Patent # 8255323 mainly describes an interface for payments from mobile devices, however, the requirements and implementation options strongly hint that this could be part of a complex transaction system.
Excerpt from the patent:
The graphical interface operates on multi-touch gestures and can use various device sensors, such as an accelerometer. The so-called "movable graphic elements" are used both to indicate the user's intentions and to confirm the successful completion of the transaction.
For example, a user can select a type of payment, possibly a graphical image of a credit or debit card, and slide that element to a confirmation position to complete a purchase. Another option allows the user to move the device itself to complete the transaction. Such a solution will probably be safer and will look more elegant than the usual "OK" and "Buy" buttons.
Examples of GUI options specifically point to the possibility of using NFC (Near Field Communication) technology as the basis for making the payments discussed above.
Close-range communication with an NFC device can be achieved using magnetic induction, which allows multiple NFC devices to communicate and receive information from tags that have an RFID scheme. As shown in the image below, NFC device can connect to shopping sites and communicate with external server.
Apple currently does not have a mobile payment system using NFC technology, but the new iOS 6 will have a Passbook program in the list of pre-installed applications, which looks like a kind of limited version of an electronic wallet. At the time of launch, the application will be equipped with the ability to transfer electronic versions of tickets, membership cards and airline tickets, but it will not support credit cards or other forms of electronic payments, such an information payment terminal.
Quite an intriguing but hardly official sign that the company is working on the development of an electronic wallet is an excerpt from the description of patent No. 8255323:
The iPhone maker is rumored to be researching NFC-centric payment systems, but its intentions remain unclear.
More recently, photos of the front of the next-generation iPhone have been released to reveal a secret component that some believe may be an NFC module.
