The Most Important Thing Apple Didn't Say This Week

By Evan Niu, CFA – Jun 12, 2013 at 6:30PM

NASDAQ: AAPL

Apple

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Apple unveiled a slew of new products and services earlier this week, but one important and expected service was nowhere to be seen. Why hasn't Apple gotten into payments yet?

Amid a flurry of announcements this week, there was one thing Apple (AAPL 1.27%) didn't talk about: payments. The Mac maker is expected to get into mobile payments, and Tim Cook said Apple now has 575 million active iTunes accounts with credit card information on file. That's an enormous asset just waiting to be tapped, yet Apple is staying mum.

Google (GOOGL 0.55%) Wallet has mostly failed to take off, and there have been reports that the search giant's Wallet customer support is poor and the service itself doesn't function properly. Google may have a vision, but it's not executing well on payments.

In the video below, Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, discusses a possible reason why Apple didn't talk about payments.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Google. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.