Tag Archives: aapl

Apple, Samsung Spurring Mobile Payment Adoption

The number of consumers using mobile phones to make payments on the go is expected to reach 148 million worldwide this year, up 64% from 90 million in 2015, U.K.-based research firm Juniper Research said Tuesday. Apple ( AAPL ) and Samsung will account for nearly 70% of new customers for contactless payments this year, Juniper said. Apple Pay and Samsung Pay have been heavily promoted by their respective companies. When Apple Pay arrived in China in mid-February, nearly 40 million payment cards were registered to the service in the first 24 hours. In the U.S., nearly 1 in 5 point-of-sale terminals now supports contactless payments, creating the infrastructure for broader adoption, Juniper said. Contactless-payment systems use near-field communications technology. With NFC, a user simply holds their smartphone near the payment terminal to complete the secure wireless transaction. Apple Pay and Samsung Pay compete with other service providers, including Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Android Pay and PayPal ( PYPL ).

Federal Judge Sides With Apple In iPhone Encryption Case

While Apple ( AAPL ) continues to fight a court order to break its iPhone encryption in the San Bernardino, Calif., shooter case, it won a victory in a similar legal dispute in New York. U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein ruled Monday that the U.S. Justice Department cannot force Apple to provide the FBI with access to locked iPhone data in a Brooklyn drug case, the Associated Press reported . Orenstein’s order contrasts with that of the judge in the San Bernardino case. On Feb. 16, U.S. Magistrate Sheri Pym ordered Apple to provide “reasonable technical assistance” to the FBI to unlock an iPhone belonging to Syed Farook, one of the killers in the San Bernardino shootings. The order calls for Apple to create software that can get around or disable the security option that erases data from an iPhone after 10 unsuccessful attempts to unlock it. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people and injured 22 others in a shooting rampage on Dec. 2. The radicalized Muslim couple, described in press reports as supporters of terror group ISIS, later died in a gun battle with police. The court case has sparked a fierce debate over encryption that has pit the tech industry and civil libertarians against law enforcement and national security proponents. RELATED: Apple Shareholders Show Support For Company’s Privacy Stance . More Americans Support Feds In Apple-FBI Encryption Fight .

Apple Music Rival Spotify Could Get $500 Million Injection: Report

Apple ( AAPL ) Music and Pandora Media ( P ) rival Spotify could get a $500 million injection from TPG Capital, a major U.S.-based private equity firm, according to a British media report. The reported financing of Spotify comes amid continuing growth in the music-streaming sector and follows a share sale last year which valued the privately-held company — which has nearly 30 million paying subscribers — at about $8.5 billion, according to a report by Sky News late Friday. TPG Capital is discussing an investment of as much as $500 million to Spotify, which competes with Apple , Pandora, Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google and other music-streaming services, Sky News said. Sky News reported that the money could be used to fund acquisitions, with talk of a major investment in Spotify coming on the heels of another report, this time from the New York Post, saying Samsung, Spotify and Google all examined a potential takeover  of music streaming service Tidal. Spotify has discussed creating an initiative that could produce a Tidal “powered by Spotify” partnership rather than an acquisition, the New York Post said on Thursday. An estimated 41 million people paid for a streaming music subscription services in 2014, according to IFPI, a London-based recording industry trade group that represents more than 1,300 record labels. TPG declined to comment on the report. Apple Music has 11 million paid subscribers, senior vice president Eddy Cue said earlier this month , up from 10 million paying customers at the beginning of the year. Apple Music began in June for Apple iOS users with three-month trial subscriptions, expanding to the Google Android operating system in November. Apple may be attracting members from its rivals, including Pandora, Amazon.com ( AMZN ), Google’s YouTube and Spotify. Apple stock slipped 0.3% in the stock market today , closing at 96.65. Pandora stock closed up 0.5% at 10.22. Image provided by Shutterstock .