While the smartphone continues to revolutionise the consumer payments landscape, Apple is now viewed as just another competitor, rather than having any special edge, according to a panel of local payments experts.Andrew Rothwell, vice president of sales and co-founder of Australian payments business Tyro, said that Apple was just one of any number of  "great big organisations (which) have the potential to disrupt the market."David Joss, the chief executive of Bendigo Bank-owned Community Telco Australia, which conducts much of the bank's technological innovation, said that Apple now controlled only a small portion of the smartphone market and that consumers should be wary of attempts by Apple to "trap you in their ecosystem".Apple's status in the financial firmament was examined in the recent Murray Inquiry interim report, which noted that the technology giant already operated a closed loop pre-paid system, and was holding significant funds in its iTunes walled payments garden.The report also noted Apple had signalled its intention to develop more payments capabilities for its devices. It questioned whether organisations such as Apple should face greater regulatory controls.The Australian Information Industry Association, which hosted the payments innovation panel in Sydney last week, also released a white paper on payments innovation which said: "Apple, Google, PayPal and other aggregators are focusing on customer engagement by providing value added services, with the aim of reducing the financial institutions to nothing more than moving lumps of funds from one institution to another."It noted how Apple already allowed customers to use their iPhone to scan a product barcode in an Apple store and pay using the credit card stored in iTunes.The expected arrival of the iPhone 6 later this year has prompted a flurry of market rumours suggesting that the device will boast a bigger, scratch-resistant screen - perfect for enabling payments - and finally feature a near field communications chip to allow contactless payments.But John Tait, managing director of payments processing specialist First Data, said that it would take more than technology to allow a company to dominate in payments. "The other thing is the trust element. What happens when you want to exchange money?" he said.The AIIA paper cited a survey of around 4,000 Americans conducted by Accenture, asking which of a range of non-banks they might be willing to bank with in the future.While 50 per cent said they would be happy to bank with Square and 41 per cent with PayPal, only 29 per cent would be likely to bank with Apple - exactly the same number as might bank with discount supermarket Costco.