Apple Considering Turning iTunes Store Accounts into PayPal Competitor?

[MadCow42]

pay-by-phone...

Maybe this is their way into the pay-by-phone market that is commonplace in Japan - using your mobile to pay at vending machines and some stores.

Wireless carriers haven't been quick to adopt it in North America or even Europe, but maybe Apple can get the jump on that market by leveraging the iPhone and iTunes accounts. Long term it would support both their hardware model (driving phone sales) and payment processing revenue.

Interesting enough to be believable, at least.

MadCow

 

[Target362]

But isn't this a bit like Microsoft getting into the search business, where they really had no reason to go?

Actully microsoft has been in the search business for quite a while. It started out with MSN search back in 1999, then it went to Windows Live search in 2006, and then just Live search in 2007. Then in 2008 a new search code named Kumo, turned to bing back in June 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(search_engine)

To be honest I like the direction bing is going to. I have a felling thats where all search engines will be going to soon.

 

[citi]

Why Apple?

unnecessary at best. There are too many payment methods out there anyway, and love them or hate them, there is nothing wrong with Paypal. I don't know why people loathe them so...

Maybe, just maybe it's because they did something boneheaded like not verifying a legit transaction and they had to go through the whole chargeback process.

You can't blame Paypal for your stupidity.

 

[MadCow42]

Paypal easy to fraud...

The other 20% is due to the million or so easy ways to scam or rip someone off using the service.

Absolutely - the best/worst scam I've personally come across is pretty easy; in this case a magazine subscription site.

1) find a business model where the time between payment and delivery of service/item is longer than PayPal's "protection period" (60 days, I believe)

2) take people's money, and hold them off from complaining for >60 days

3) ... profit!!! (nothing else required)

I got taken for $12 (I wouldn't have risked more anyways) at www.nobullmagazines.com, and PayPal wouldn't even investigate or refund my money because by the time it was clear the guy was scamming it was past their maximum time. Nothing I could do would get them to even look at the complaint... so I had to report the site to the FBI instead (great hope of them doing something...).

Seriously easy to game their system. As far as I can tell he's still in business running that site and taking people's money. At least now if you search their domain name the first hits show complaints and scam alerts.

MadCow.

 

[citi]

I've been using ebay & paypal since the day they started.

Ebay is great, paypal is a necessary evil. I now factor in a 30% loss rate due to Paypals ineffectiveness. By the time you're done with paying all the fees for an auction, eBay/Paypal typically take 10%. The other 20% is due to the million or so easy ways to scam or rip someone off using the service. After looking at our totals over the last 5 years, it's only been getting worse.

Paypal needs a competitor in a big way. There are other services, but none would lend the weight an iTunes service would.

Maybe it would sit better with if Itunes wasn't called Itunes. In 10 years I don't want to be buying my groceries from Itunes. (You know it's going to happen)

 

[Target362]

unnecessary at best. There are too many payment methods out there anyway, and love them or hate them, there is nothing wrong with Paypal. I don't know why people loathe them so...

Maybe, just maybe it's because they did something boneheaded like not verifying a legit transaction and they had to go through the whole chargeback process.

You can't blame Paypal for your stupidity.

oh really?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_Pal#Criticism
http://www.paypalsucks.com/


Seriously, go play in traffic kid

 

[Target362]

Maybe it would sit better with if Itunes wasn't called Itunes. In 10 years I don't want to be buying my groceries from Itunes. (You know it's going to happen)

True, after all, itunes doesn't just play "tunes" anymore

 

[emulator]

google tried and failed miserably with GCO, people stopped using it when they ended the 10off10 promo.

 

[Imhotep397]

This would probably be ideal for Apple. It's no secret they've been trying to set-up easy ways for people to make pick-up or delivery services like getting coffee from the local Starbucks easier, it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of R&D money on developing something around a couple of niche opportunities, but if there's a comprehensive plan to address a lot of small things it makes a lot of more sense. It would be a good strategy, Apple already has a huge installed base on iTunes and Paypal doesn't have any equivalent sized competitors. It wouldn't be a particularly profitable business, but it would keep people using iTunes and potentially sell more Mac hardware through the "halo effect".

 

[MacFly123]

PayPal makes a LOT of money right? Apple already has everything in place, so why not? It starts to make lots of sense when you think of the future of purchasing and advertising just using your iPhone or iPod at stores or online like a credit card. Interesting!

 

[andy721]

Two days ago this crowd would have loved PayPal, but now that apple wants to compete they make paypal looks like an incarnation of satan.

No paypal actually cause the whole ordeal if you sheep investigate and listen you would all understand 100%.

 

[Lone Deranger]

Since when do Apple executives "drop hints"? That doesn't fall in line with Apple's ultra secretive behaviour. I don't buy this rumour.

all Street gossips tell us that Apple executives have dropped hints suggesting the company is considering creating a service that would allow iTunes Store account holders to use those accounts to make purchases on participating third-party sites across the Internet.

 

[freediverdude]

Wait, so you mean soon I will be buying my anti-gas medicine through something called iTunes? Sigh.

 

[VenusianSky]

Actully microsoft has been in the search business for quite a while. It started out with MSN search back in 1999, then it went to Windows Live search in 2006, and then just Live search in 2007. Then in 2008 a new search code named Kumo, turned to bing back in June 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(search_engine)

To be honest I like the direction bing is going to. I have a felling thats where all search engines will be going to soon.

In addition, Microsoft has MS SQL, the second most popular database app and only real competitor to Oracle. Internet search engines are just an optimzed database query tool, with some extra stuff the crawl the web. Microsoft has been in the database software business for many many years.

 

[lonepilgrim]

An iTunes Store API to enable developers to sell apps directly from their own websites, bypassing the App Store, would be highly plausible.

 

[RazHyena]

This is one thing I just don't see Apple doing. What the heck for??

 

[diamond.g]

They would have to seriously upgrade the security of their accounts if they are to do this. An Apple Representative happily changed all the info minus the credit card number in my account after someone gave him the serial number to my old iPhone. This then populated out to all the accounts connected to my Apple ID, some of which I cannot change back nor find anyone who will change it for me (no, my first name is not Sherry, Apple).

The sad fact is that Apple is incredibly easy to use social engineering on to allow you to hijack accounts.

This would have to be fixed.

 

[gnasher729]

would be great, I hate PayPal anyway, but too many people use it, and not enough Google checkout, this might not go too well.

Why do you hate PayPal? Because sometimes things go wrong, especially with eBay purchases, and then two people have an argument, and PayPal has to support one side, so one side thinks they just got what is rightfully theirs, and the other side thinks they have been robbed. But exactly the same thing would happen if Apple did the same thing.

You could only have a different situation if Apple only allowed sellers who are extremely reliable. Which would mean they never make a mistake, no honest customer would ever have a reason to complain, and any customer complaining would be automatically considered dishonest and in the wrong. Mmmh. Doesn't sound quite right either.

 

[w00master]

An iTunes Store API to enable developers to sell apps directly from their own websites, bypassing the App Store, would be highly plausible.

I think this is the idea. I doubt that Apple wants to actually compete with PayPal.

w00master

 

[Hal1980]

Paypal blows. I absolutely hate them. Would love to see them have some competition from Apple.

 

[Target362]

speaking of paypal

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

*Anything* to compete with PayPal is a wonderful thing. Too bad eBay (aka PayPal) is going to make sure only PayPal is used in their service. PayPal is a wretched company and I avoid them whenever I can.

Google Checkout works just fine though at most other places, and I'm cool with Google. I'm not quite sure what Apple hopes to accomplish here either, but if this rumor is based on fact, I'd wager they're up to something bigger.

 

[bigwig]

PayPal is free.

PayPal commercial accounts aren't free. If you're running more than $1000 a month (that's what it was when I upgraded) through the account you'll have to "upgrade" to a commercial account.

My problem with PayPal isn't the fees, it's the aggressively antagonistic attitude PayPal takes towards its customers. They cancel accounts at the slightest whiff of trouble, they routinely lock money in your account for months at a time without recourse, they require minimum account balances for no apparent reason (when and why isn't detailed anywhere on their website), and it's almost impossible to get a live person on the phone to resolve problems.

 

[Pooshka]

The only thing that is COMPLETELY FREE on PayPal is sending money to friends/family, which is a great feature.

Two conditions must be met though:

1. Both parties must be on the same PayPal account type, i.e., personal, premier, business.

2. Both parties must be in the same country.

 

[DELLsFan]

This is not a business model that suits Apple and it doesn't really make sense. iTunes accounts are very specifically for itunes and buying content there. Why would Apple allow people to spend their money on a 3rd party website rather than in Apples own store?

Exactly my thinking. Apple should stick to doing what they do best - overcharge for excellent computers.