With the Mac soon set to join the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch in the list of Apple product lines supporting Apple Pay, it begs the question: which line could the mobile payment service expand to next? Possibly the iPod Touch, judging from a new trademark filing made by Apple.
Patently Apple reports that, this week, the Cupertino company filed new trademark applications relating to iPod, Apple TV and Apple News. Unsurprisingly, the filing covers, among many other previously publicized features, the Apple TV’s voice command and recognition functionality and the new Apple News icon. However, it’s with the greatly expanded classes for iPod that things get really interesting.
These, specified in a UK filing made on Friday, include International Class 36, which refers to “financial transaction services”, “payment authorization, verification, and transaction processing services” and related areas, and International Class 10, which cites various sensors. Collectively, these references, Patently Apple notes, strongly hint at a future Touch ID-equipped iPod Touch supporting Apple Pay.
While Touch ID is necessary for authenticating payments on iPhones and iPads that use Apple Pay, this sensor has not yet featured in an iPod Touch model. Therefore, to bring Apple Pay to the iPod Touch, Apple would need to bring out a new model – which, considering the product line’s relative unpopularity and the arrival of the latest model only last summer, might not be announced until next year at the earliest.