Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

One of the biggest risks of mobile payments is the possibility that a smartphone has been tampered with, either physically or with malware, in ways that put payment accounts at risk by thieves. But a patent issued to Apple on February 1 suggests that the Cupertino crowd may have plans for detecting iPhone and iPad tampering in near real time—and even shutting down phones that have been tampered with.

Apple’s patent application makes clear it’s mainly aimed at iPhone abuse that would void the phone’s warranty. But it’s just as clear that the abuse-detection system could go much further than that. If Apple decides to use it to bolster the security of the iPhone and iPad for mobile payments, that could make the iPad much more secure for retailers as an in-store payments device used by employees—and make the iPhone a much safer way for customers to make mobile payments.

The patent, #7,880,591, is for a system for “detecting whether consumer abuse has occurred in an electronic device.” Put simply, Apple’s design works like this: A set of sensors identifies potential abuse from liquid immersion, extreme heat, physical shock or tampering. Any “abuse event” is logged in special tamper-proof memory, and the device is shut down—but it periodically wakes up to check whether the abuse is still going on.

If the device is still wet or hot or otherwise being abused, the device goes back to sleep. If the abuse has ended, the device runs a self-test and either flashes the iPhone equivalent of a “check engine” light or returns to normal operation. But the log of the abuse event remains, encrypted and password-protected. So if the device is returned to the manufacturer for service, a technician can identify any “abuse events” and whether that abuse could have caused the problem that needs repair.

In itself, this is a clever diagnostic system. And it should help Apple keep the warranty replacement costs down on future iPhones and iPads. (The patent specifically mentions its usefulness as a “countermeasure against crafty consumers,” who want to file a false warranty claim when they’ve abused their devices.)

For retailers’ IT departments, that’s a potential pain. Employees rarely admit they do anything to IT equipment other than use it properly. A company-issued iPhone or iPad has never been dropped in a toilet, roasted on a hot car dashboard or bounced down a flight of steps. If Apple installs an abuse-detection system in future i-devices, a lot more warranty claims from IT departments could be rejected—and service contracts might start looking like a necessary expense.

But there’s a much stronger reason this patent is interesting for retailers. Apple wants to be a player in mobile payments, and retailers want to use Apple devices for in-store payments. If Apple pushes the patent’s ideas just a little further—periodically checking for both physical abuse and malware—that could help maintain the integrity of an iPhone or iPad as a payment device in two obvious ways.

The first is hardening the iPhone and iPad for use as in-store payment devices.