Apple Opening Touch ID to App Designers - Could Change the Way Online Purchasing is Completed

A small announcement is causing some big ripples.

It didn’t get much attention immediately following Apple‘s WWDC address earlier this week, but the Internet was abuzz Tuesday with what little was said about the company’s mobile payment strategy. Craig Federigh, Apple’s senior vice-president of software engineering, spoke for about two hours and unveiled numerous new products the company is working on but it was a one-minute mention that seemed to initially get bypassed and, later, caught some attention.

As Mashable reported, Federigh displayed a slide about Touch ID, Apple’s fingerprint scanner included on last year’s iPhone 5, and slipped in the fact app developers will be able to soon access to apply that feature through a new API.

So what?

Well, part of that presentation included a demonstration of how personal finance application Mint could use the Touch ID rather than the common use of passwords.

The big picture of this means Apple may finally be advancing with its much-discussed, much-delayed online payment system.

While virtual currency isn’t a new concept it is one area Apple hasn’t been as strong as other companies.

If app designers and existing apps can access Touch ID it could open up a whole new world for both Apple and its customers. The ability to safely and securely — what’s more secure than fingerprints? — make purchases could totally reinvent online financial transactions for millions of consumers.

It may have been a small drop of water in the huge sea of announcements by Apple but the ability for Touch ID to expand will surely cause waves to crash on the shores of consumerism.

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Apple Opening Touch ID to App Designers

W. Brice McVicar is a staff writer for SiteProNews.

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