Mobile Payments – The Future Is NOW

At this week's highly anticipated new product launch, Tim Cook (Apple's CEO) introduced Apple Pay, Apple's new payment platform driven by the event's leading stars, the iPhone 6 and iWatch. As usual, the excitement was infectious and palatable, even for those virtually participating from locations thousands of miles from Cupertino.

Apple is entering the payments market as a starting point for a new service category in its groundbreaking product portfolio. A move backed by Apple, the top-ranking global brand, most surely has significant implications for banks, payment networks, retailers, consumers, and beyond.

The technology of the current payments system is based on a model developed more than 50 years ago. The vulnerability of existing payments security has been made clear with the ongoing stream of data breach announcements from Target to Home Depot.