Andy Hargreaves, an analyst with Pacific Crest, downplayed expectations for both the rumored payment service and the iWatch in an investor note on Wednesday. "We do not expect either new segment to drive incremental profits that are meaningful at Apple’s scale in the near to medium term,” Crone echoed the point in an interview with Mashable. "You've got to have a long runway for a mobile payments takeoff," he says. "All new payment types start first with merchant acceptance and merchants up to this point have been loath to accept near field communications at the point of sale." Apple also needs time to convince consumers to shift from credit cards to making financial transactions on its mobile payments platform, a task that seems even harder this week following reports of iCloud security issues. "I think the latest iCloud related security issue could have an impact on how Apple users view the new payments system," says Denée Carrington, an analyst with Forrester Research, in an email. "There is a large group of consumers who are wary of mobile payments and highly risk averse and the recent issues may give the reinforce the fear that mobile phones and "the cloud" as fundamentally insecure. The recent iCloud issues may dampen their potential willingness to trust Apple." Then again, as Crone points out, credit cards don't exactly have the best track record with security. In the past year, there have been major security breaches at Target, Michaels and now allegedly Home Depot.

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