NEW YORK - Despite a rush to market by handset makers intent on grabbing a share of the burgeoning mobile payments landscape, the Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is taking a deliberate "go-slow" approach.

The tech innovator has held "deep discussions" about mobile payments though has yet to launch a platform that links credit or debit cards to its ubiquitous iPhone.

While some Apple engineers argued for a more aggressive approach that would integrate payments more directly into its handsets, higher-ups are treading slowly €" for now.

Phil Schiller, Apple€™s head of worldwide marketing, said digital wallet mobile payment services are "all fighting over their piece of the pie, and we aren€™t doing that."

While Apple has revolutionized music and mobile phone industries, it isn€™t often the first to market, choosing instead to wait while others work out the bugs in a new market.

"Apple is always a comfortable number two," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, citing its relatively late entries in the MP3 player, smartphone and tablet markets as examples. "They let their competitors do their market research for them."

While mobile payments competition is fierce, the market is young enough that Apple can afford to take its time, said Nick Holland, an analyst at the Yankee Group. "Right now it is just a gold rush," he said, pointing to the next 18 months as when market leaders will emerge.

He and other industry watchers expect Apple to launch a strong program once consumer adoption becomes more prevalent. Its advantage in the mobile payment arena is considerable: It has sold more than 200 million iPhones and has roughly 400 million credit card accounts tied to its iTunes store.

According to sources, a small group of Apple insiders began investigating last year whether to embed a payment service into the iPhone or build its own network. They also discussed whether it should facilitate payments to merchants directly, a plan that didn€™t move forward out of concerns that the company would need to become a bank.

Apple also considered a mobile software app that would provide users with access to payment cards and coupons in one place, along with daily offers.

Meanwhile, its hardware division was studying NFC technology options for over-the-air payments, but nixed the idea over security concerns and the impact on the iPhone€™s battery life. Executives were also leery of the slow adoption of NFC among retailers.

An executive review in early 2012 opted instead for the scaled-down version of Passbook, a wallet app that excludes payment functionality €" for now.

"What they essentially have is everything you would store in a physical wallet apart from the cards," Holland said. "I imagine Apple will layer physical world payments as a future capability."