Apple’s “Passbook was initially launched in September of 2012,” Mobile Commerce News reports. “The application is designed to turn an iOS device into a digital wallet, storing a wide variety of data and making this information accessible to users in an efficient manner. Passbook can store electronic tickets for travel and entertainment events as well as loyalty rewards from retailers and reservations from restaurants. The application is capable of scanning 2D barcodes, such as QR codes, and can take advantage of a variety of location-based services.”
“One of the most notable, yet largely ignored, features of Passbook is its ability to process mobile payments. The application supports online shopping and in-store payment services through PassKit,” Mobile Commerce News reports. “Through this service, Passbook can initiate mobile payments by scanning a code or being fed information from a payment terminal through a USB connection. The transaction is authenticated through the PassKit database, allowing Passbook to determine whether payment is being issued to a legitimate business or not. The application also provides users with the ability to customize their payment options based on the stores they visit.”
Mobile Commerce News reports, “Apple has made no effort to shroud its mobile commerce efforts in secrecy, but few people seem to realize that Passbook is actually a mobile commerce platform.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: By now, we’ve enjoyed the convenience of Apple’s Passbook too many times to count.
Related articles:
Apple’s Passbook already 4th-most popular mobile commerce app in U.S. – September 30, 2013
Why Apple’s Passbook is growing on retailers – June 25, 2013
Dunkin’ Donuts mobile app adds support for Apple Passbook – February 28, 2013
MLB triples number of stadiums that accept mobile tickets via Apple’s Passbook – February 27, 2013
Apple’s Passbook an amazing success for developers – December 20, 2012
Major League Baseball brass shocked as 12% chose Apple’s Passbook over traditional tickets – October 10, 2012
How to add your Starbucks card to Apple’s Passbook app – October 4, 2012
How to get started with iOS 6′s most underrated new app: Passbook – September 26, 2012
Why can’t we have it on an iPad??
Since an iPad fiteth not into your pocket, thou would’st not carry your iPad everywhere like an iPhone would you?
Ps, I spake thus, coz I larpeth!
Maybe Bob is a typically obese American male who wears xxxxx large clothes with pockets the size of shopping bags? Didn’t think of that, now did ya’ Shakespeare.
You can’t say the ‘o’ word. They are know as gravitationally challenged.
“Challenged” as a term for disability usually means a lack of something.
You actually mean gravitationally gifted, or gravitationally enhanced.
Yes, you are right. I am factually challenged.
Would someone who has a difficult time seeing be considered visually challenged? And how about someone who has a difficult time with gravity? Would they also be challenged?
Visually impaired.
Those who have difficulty with the theory of gravity prefer to call their beliefs “intelligent falling.”
You mean ‘Fat Bastards’, I think.
Because you didn’t say “please”.
Where do you find out how to use passbook? Which businesses are already accepting it?
You first need to download an app. Ie Starbucks, Amtrak, American Airlines or Target. Inside the app and if you have a ticket to board or have an account at Starbucks or Target you then can ADD the passbook ticket.
I have not found a use for it yet. I don’t go to Starbucks but did down load the app just to try linking it to Passbook. I haven’t been on a flight for three years and there are no stores that I want to shop as that use Passbook.
I still want a digital wallet but not enough businesses are onboard yet.
I’m with you on this – I want an eWallet – I don’t care if it’s NFC based, iBeacon based, of simple barcode based.
The Starbuck Passbook ticket is the closest I can get to that right now, and works brilliantly. Most Starbucks I go to have their scanners pointed at the consumer, so I just wave my iPhone in front of the scanner and move on. Quick and simple! Every time I use, it just makes me wish that we had a real eWallet app that worked everywhere.
You don’t always have to download an app. I recently bought airline tickets and had them email me the tickets. I went to my email on my iPhone and downloaded the attachment which put it into Passbook. When I got out of the taxi at the airport, bingo, up pops my airline ticket automatically.
This works really well.
The trick with Passbook is if you’re using it, it just works. You don’t have to think about it much.
If you’re not using Passbook, it seems a little impenetrable. It’s not clear how it works or how you start using it.
A few more “everyday” uses like Starbucks would help get people using it and comfortable with it.
Try Fandango for movie tickets. The tickets pop up when you get to the theatre.
In Ireland we use Passbook to buy potatoes & cabbages just like we used to when the British were still our overlords.
It doesn’t work for me. It’s too much to have to download each app. It should “just work” when I want to buy something. Maybe now with the fingerprint sensor that is closer to happening.
What can you do with PassBook except for purchasing airline tickets or Starbucks coffee? The last time I used this next to useless app you had to access third party websites and go through this rigmarole to add merchants.
I remember when credit cards were only accepted at about 20% of merchants. It takes time for new methods of purchasing to become ubiquitous. Passbook is useful but it needs to actually allow purchases to become a game changer.
“Apple has made no effort to shroud its mobile commerce efforts in secrecy”
They also, unfortunately, have made no effort to market Passbook or to explain it in a way that most people can understand.