“Apple is betting that it again can succeed where others have struggled, by changing the way consumers pay for purchases, how they think about a computing device on their wrists and how much they’re willing to pay for a phone,” Daisuke Wakabayashi, Greg Bensinger, and Alistair Barr report for The Wall Street Journal. “Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook on Tuesday introduced a new payments system for mobile devices, a series of sleekly designed smartwatches and a pair of larger iPhones.”
“Apple’s move into mobile payments seems to legitimize overnight a nascent industry. The new digital-payments service, Apple Pay, will let users buy merchandise simply by waving a newer iPhone or Apple Watch in front of a reader. Apple said it hopes to speed up the checkout process and, ultimately, to replace physical wallets,” Wakabayashi, Bensinger, and Barr report. “‘This should be a very natural extension of smartphone technology,’ said Gil Lauria, a Wedbush Securities analyst. ‘Imagine walking through Macy’s and getting an offer for 15% off sent right to your phone and then being able to apply that just by flashing your phone at the register.'”
“Apple also wants to make mobile payments more secure than traditional credit card payments,” Wakabayashi, Bensinger, and Barr report. “It will require a thumbprint scan on the smartphone to make the tap-and-go payments, meaning a stolen device can’t be used for a shopping spree.”
Full article here.