Could the iWatch also be a wallet on your wrist? Apple may be about to disrupt retail transactions

by Images_of_Money

Apple may sell a ton of iWatches, not because they tell time or how many steps you have taken – although Ibet they do that. They will sell them because they are super credit cards on your wrist.

I wrote earlier about how the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5s could be combined with the secure enclave of the A7 chip and iBeacons to create secure retail transactions.

One thing I quoted mentioned a purchase Apple made, of a company called Passif. Here is an interesting point (my bold):

This kind of tech is also very useful in providing power savings benefits while devices like the iPhone are connected to and communicating with devices like fitness trackers and other wearable tech. That means a Passif purchase could help with the development not only of future smartphones and tablets at Apple, but also potentially still-unannounced devices like the rumored iWatch.

The iPhone 5s can become a super credit card in your pocket. Maybe a smartwatch could do the same thing. However Apple had been having problems with battery life – mainly because of the low energy Bluetooth (BLE) needs.

So wireless communication is a huge part of what they want with such an iWatch.

Now take this, discussing the iWatch:

“Investors shouldn’t be misled by the word ‘Watch’. We think iWatch will not be positioned as a time-telling device, nor as a device that displays information from other Apple products,” Kuo writes. “We are positive on the iWatch because its wearable design is helpful for offering more secure user identification and biometrics functionality.”

User identification and biometrics functionality. Sounds like what we have now with an IPhone 5s.

Add a couple of energy saving tips from the minds of Passif, the secure enclave that the A7 chip has, the biometric security of the fingerprint scanner and put them in a wearable computer on your wrist.

They would sell millions.

Now walk into a store with iBeacons.

All your retail transactions could be taken care of with what you have on your wrist. And since it , or any iPhone you use, is tied to you, it is more secure than a credit card. They would sell millions.

Apple alone has all the pieces to do this. It can afford to work out deals with all the credit card companies, retailers, and iBeacon makers in order to sell more iPhones. And more iWatches. millions of them.

Now that would really make a disruptive change.