Patents Offer Clues to Apple's Post-Jobs Payment Plans

Steve Jobs' resignation raises further uncertainty over Apple Inc.'s payment plan intentions, but Apple patents themselves provide some clues as to where the company may be going.

Apple has signaled for years that its mobile payments plan differs dramatically from those of the banking industry.

Apple, for example, is considering ways to pay for and receive digital goods in the absence of a stable connection to the Internet or a payments system, according to Patently Apple, a website that aggregates and analyzes the Cupertino, Calif. company's patent applications. By contrast, many of the digital wallets that banks are testing are built around always-on remote connections to customer accounts.

Apple's patent application, published in late July, describes a system to add a stored-value function the company's mobile devices. The devices would also be pre-loaded with locked content, such as songs the user is likely to purchase. The songs would be unlocked for use when the users buy them. This process would not require the phone to have an active signal at the time of purchase, since the value is already loaded and the digital product present on the device.

Apple is also working to improve processes for accepting payments at points of sale. The company already provides Apple Store employees with mobile devices to accept payments away from its cash registers, particularly at times when it expects high traffic in its stores. It also sells add-on hardware from other vendors that transform its iPhone and iPad mobile devices into card readers.

A patent published last month shows a system that allows any mobile device to be paired with any payment terminal in the store. This is "a slicker in-store multi-point transactions system" than what Apple uses today, according to Patently Apple.

Another patent shows plans to put near-field communication chips in Apple's desktop computers. These chips are commonly used in the mobile-wallet systems banks are testing as a way to make contactless payments at a point of sale. The only smartphone available in the U.S. that uses an NFC chip is Google Inc.'s flagship Nexus S Android.

Apple's patents are by no means a definitive guide to its plans, and their publication does not indicate product releases are impending. But as Google demonstrated in its recent deal to buy Motorola Mobility and its massive patent portfolio, tech heavyweights are well aware that patents will play a key role in the mobile revolution.