Want To Know What Apple Will Do Next In Mobile Commerce? Check Out The Pirq It's Giving To Employees
As device makers like RIM, Samsung and Nokia incorporate NFC technology into their mobile devices, Apple has been radio silent on what its plans will be in mobile commerce and payments.
Context & Ripple Effects
There is no long runway of prior stories behind this piece — its significance comes from the gap it documents. As of May 2012, RIM, Samsung and Nokia are confirmed to be building NFC into their handsets, while Apple has said nothing publicly about mobile commerce or payments. That silence is itself the story: the company that controls the most commercially valuable smartphone platform has declined to endorse the tap-to-pay rail its competitors are shipping.
What makes the report travel is the one visible data point: Apple is confirmed to be giving employees access to Pirq, a mobile commerce deals app, which observers read as a window into the company's unannounced strategy. The pickup pattern is notable for a single report — it ran in GeekWire and Pulse2 alongside two separate Seattle Times placements, suggesting the story resonated especially in the Pacific Northwest tech press where Pirq operates.
First-order effects
- Apple's employee population becomes a live test bed for mobile-offer behavior through Pirq, letting the company observe redemption habits internally while committing to nothing publicly.
- RIM, Samsung and Nokia are putting NFC silicon into market-facing devices now, meaning they carry the cost and complexity of the technology before any payments ecosystem justifies it.
Second-order effects
- Merchants and payment partners face a split bet: upgrade terminals for the NFC handsets already shipping, or hold off until Apple reveals whether iOS will support the same tap model.
- Deal and loyalty app developers like Pirq gain leverage as potential distribution partners for platform owners, since whichever OS maker moves first on commerce will need merchant-side inventory.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, mobile commerce consolidates under operating-system gatekeepers rather than carriers or handset makers alone — with Apple's go-slow posture determining whether NFC tap-to-pay becomes the default rail or one option among several.
- A prolonged Apple absence from NFC risks fragmenting the market between rival-led tap payments and app-based offer models, forcing merchants to support multiple acceptance paths.
The trend: Mobile payments are becoming an OS-maker battleground in which Apple's silence on NFC — while RIM, Samsung and Nokia build it into handsets — leaves rivals to define the tap-to-pay standard.