When an analyst asked Steve Jobs during Apple’s last earnings call what he plans to do with Apple’s $50 billion in cash, he replied that he wants to keep Apple’s “powder dry” in case “one or more strategic opportunities . . . come along.” Speculation started immediately about who Apple could buy with all that cash: Facebook, Sony, Adobe?
But Apple never makes huge acquisitions. It tends to make smaller talent and technology acquisitions instead.
Apple’s rumored interest in mobile payments startup BOKU would fall into that pattern. The fact that it is in M&A discussions with BOKU doesn’t mean a deal is going to happen, but it does mean that Apple is very interested in mobile payments.
Whether it builds or buys, or does a little bit of both, mobile payments could be a huge opportunity for Apple within the next few years.
Imagine if your iPhone became your wallet? The dream of turning mobile phones into wallets has been pursued for a long time by many companies, but Apple is in a unique position to make mobile payments more mainstream. Apple already handles payments very well through iTunes, which boasts 160 million active credit card accounts. PayPal only has 90 million.
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http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/01/apple-mobile-payments/
