- Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) looks to launch a new Tap to Pay feature for the iPhone. It will offer merchants an alternative to Block Inc's (NYSE:SQ) Square technology, Bloomberg reports.
- The feature will allow people to buy goods from merchants in the U.S. through Apple Pay, credit cards, and digital wallets without additional hardware.
- Apple will launch the feature using field communications (NFC) technology for making all kinds of payments, including between iPhones, to maintain user privacy.
- Fintech services Stripe and Shopify Point will be the first to offer the "Tap to Pay" feature to business customers in the spring of 2022 in the U.S.
- Analyst Rating: Barclays analyst Ramsey El-Assal inferred that the Apple solution would be available for payment platform operators and app developers to integrate into their iOS apps, which presumably includes Square's Point of Sale app.
- Apple's approach suggests that iPhone Tap to Pay "may not be a competitive threat" to Square and instead may be additive, said El-Assal, who thinks "this should put to rest investor fears" that Apple will roll out a competing payments solution.
- The analyst has an Overweight rating and $205 price target (19.4% upside) on Square parent Block, whose shares are down about 1.38% to $101.39 near midday following Apple's launch announcement this morning.
- Price Action: AAPL shares traded higher by 1.31% at $173.91 on the last check Tuesday.
