Is Apple A Friend Or Threat To PayPal? It Will Be Clear On Thursday

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Whether Apple is PayPal’s friend or enemy is something many have wondered about as the latter prepares to report its latest earnings on Thursday, according to Barron’s. In a research note on Monday, BITG analyst Mark Palmer said it is very important for investors to get a clear idea of how the company withstood “a particularly noteworthy test of the resilience to PayPal’s platform to competitive threats.”

Why PayPal’s earnings report is important to investors

This will be the first full quarter Apple Pay was available on Macs. Apple users are able to store credit card information in their iCloud accounts with the help of Apple Pay and later use TouchID (Apple’s fingerprint reader) to authorize purchases. On the other hand, PayPal has been in the business of web-based payments for years.

In his note, Palmer notes that as soon as PayPal reports its earnings, a significant amount of movement will be seen in its shares, particularly because it is the time when most of the year’s PayPal news surfaces and the company details long-term trends.

“PayPal’s ability to weather competitive challenges such as that from Apple Pay will be at the core of this process,” Palmer noted.

PayPal, however, feels that the iPhone maker could help its business. Many merchants use its Braintree platform to turn on Apple Pay acceptance, notes Barron’s. Also the U.S. firm recently upgraded its OS, allowing Siri to make payments using PayPal’s Venmo money-transfer service.

Therefore, Thursday’s earnings release will give investors a better understanding of whether Apple Pay is an opportunity for it or poses a threat.

Apple releases iOS 10.2.1

Meanwhile, Apple released iOS 10.2.1 for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad on Monday. This included several bug fixes and performance updates to the mobile platform. This is the first update since iOS 10.1, which brought additional diagnostic capabilities, allowing the company to keep better track of the random shutdowns that have been causing trouble for some iPhone users.

To download the update, users need to go to Settings, then to General, and then to Software Update. It can be downloaded on all iOS devices running iOS 10 (the iPhone 5 and all later versions, the sixth-generation iPod touch and later, and the fourth generation iPad and later versions).

On Monday, Apple shares closed up 0.07% at $120.08. Year to date, the stock is up almost 4%, while in the last year, it is up more than 18%. The stock has a 52-week high of $120.81 and a 52-week low of $89.47.

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