Mobeewave domain now owned by Apple one year after acquisition

The ownership of Mobeewave.com has shifted to Apple, a sign that the year-ago acquisition has progressed internally.

Mobeewave is a startup seeking to make peer-to-peer payments easier by tapping NFC-enabled credit cards to the backs of smartphones. Apple acquired the company in August 2020, and that process seems to be moving forward.

First spotted by MacRumors, the domain name mobeewave.com is now under Apple's possession. The website's domain information now lists Apple's servers, but it isn't currently active.

Apple's acquisition of the company may have been for talent, patents, or both. However, Apple has not absorbed the company into its Cupertino offices, as Mobeewave continues operating in Montreal.

If the technology is implemented in Apple's iPhone, it may enable transactions between people without the need of a chip reader or other payment mechanism. However, such a feature could mean trouble for third-party payment systems like Square, which relies on hardware sales of payment terminals.

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7 Comments

mike1 3432 comments · 10 Years

About 3 years ago

In addition to cards, it would be great to be able to tap phones and send/receive money without the need for Venmo or the like.

Can have the funds go to/from either a predetermined debit card or the Apple Cash card.

rbnetengr 74 comments · 11 Years

That’s a different application. The funds transfer happens between financial institutions, even for transfers like Venmo.

For this application, the purchaser is merely giving the payment card info to the seller wirelessly (rather than via a chip or card swipe reader), and then the seller processes the transaction.

chadbag 2026 comments · 13 Years

No, Square doesn’t rely on sales of chip or otherwise enabled card reading terminals. They used to give them away and I would guess they charge enough now to cover the cost. Square makes its money on the fees charged to the merchant to process a transaction.

Beats 3073 comments · 4 Years

mike1 said:

In addition to cards, it would be great to be able to tap phones and send/receive money without the need for Venmo or the like.
Can have the funds go to/from either a predetermined debit card or the Apple Cash card.

Tapping phones was a dumb Samsung “innovation” that they (as usual) abandoned.

How is this idea better than Apple Cash?

alcoholicfrog 11 comments · 14 Years

Beats said:
Tapping phones was a dumb Samsung “innovation” that they (as usual) abandoned.

How is this idea better than Apple Cash?

Depends on your purpose of use. My dad was an artist who displayed his work at art shows and street fairs all over the place.

Something like allowing users to tap phones (or do a wireless exchange within a foot or two) would allow vendors like him to accept that type of payment without needing to ask for a customer’s phone number or email (or revealing their own).

I wouldn’t really want to give my phone number or email to every vendor that I’ve ever bought from, but would love to have more of them be able to accept payment from my phone or watch.