Ondrej Holzman Apple CEO Tim Cook in a conference call to mark the announcement financial results for the first quarter of 2014 revealed that his company is interested in the field of mobile payments and that one of the ideas behind Touch ID in the iPhone 5S was the payments…
Users are said to have learned to use Touch ID instead of entering a password to purchase music, movies and other content very quickly, and Tim Cook, when asked about Touch ID and the possibilities in the mobile payments market, said that "obviously there's a lot of opportunity."
The question to the head of Apple probably came in reference to last week's speculations, which talked about a new division that is being built in Cupertino and should focus on mobile payments. "It's one of the things we're interested in," Cook admitted, noting that Touch ID was developed with the understanding that it could be used for mobile payments in the future.
For now, Touch ID can only be used to pay in iTunes and the App Store, where instead of entering a password, you just place your finger on the button and pay. But Apple has huge potential in a large user base that already has its credit cards stored in iTunes. In addition, Cook said that Apple does not intend to limit Touch ID only to mobile payments, but he did not want to be more specific. So it's possible that before long we won't just be unlocking the iPhone and paying for apps with Touch ID.
