Apple Inc. may be developing a purchasing system to work with its popular iPhones.
The Cupertino, Calif., consumer electronics company filed a patent application Dec. 20 describing a way to use wireless devices to initiate purchases from merchants.
The iPhone, which Apple began selling this year, already lets users to purchase music through its iTunes application when they are near a wireless Internet connection. Apple has an arrangement with Starbucks Corp. to let people who like the songs they hear at the Seattle company's coffee shops purchase the music quickly with their iPhones or certain versions of the iPod.
The patent application describes a similar system that uses merchant-operated servers. People would be able to place orders with their mobile devices. The mobile device would communicate with the server, which would forward the orders to employees who would prepare the purchase for pickup. The patent application does not address payments.
Like loyalty programs, the system would be able to keep track of returning customers, their purchasing history, and their preferences.
Apple is not the first company to express interest in purchasing systems for mobile devices. A version of PayPal Inc.'s service allows users to purchase products remotely and have them billed to their accounts with the eBay Inc. unit and mailed to the address the user has on file with the payment company. Customers make purchases by sending text messages with codes they find in ads.
Apple's idea also resembles Vayusa Inc.'s MobileLime, which sends coupons to users' cell phones and allows payments from a mobile wallet. The Quincy, Mass., company's system accesses the wallet through a near-field communication chip.
Card companies and issuers have also tested near-field communication chips in phones.
Spokespeople for Apple did not return calls or e-mails for comment Friday.
