Apple Pay is “a system that offers real tangible advantages over the status quo; the ability to pay with your iPhone or your Apple Watch offers not only more convenience than paying with a physical card but also bestows much needed security on every transaction,” Dan Moren writes for Macworld. “It’s become more and more popular, but there are still lots of places where you can’t yet use it.”
“Adoption’s just one part of the equation,” Moren writes. “Even without Apple Pay being ubiquitous, there’s still room for Apple to improve what its contactless payment system offers.”
“I’d love to see a way to send money via direct device-to-device transfers using NFC, perhaps using a similar system as AirDrop. After all, if you can drop a picture to someone you don’t know, why not a payment as well? You’d still need to authorize with your passcode, Face ID, or Touch ID before the payment, and, as with an iMessage account, a device is associated with a specific Apple ID,” Moren writes. “As long as I’m pipe-dreaming, let’s throw it out there: cross-platform Apple Pay.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: At one point, according to our sources, Apple was strongly considering Messages for Android, which would have opened the door for Apple Pay Cash transfers between iOS users and those who settle for a bad imitation that, BTW, isn’t exactly known for privacy or security, two things that are rather necessary for people to feel confident in while making cash transfers. Along the winding Messages for Android path, Apple likely concluded that iMessage exclusivity was worth more to them than incremental P2P cash transfers. We’ll see if that stance holds true past this year’s WWDC, too.
SEE ALSO:
Loup Ventures: There are now 383 million Apple Pay users, up 135% year-over-year – February 20, 2019
Apple debuts three new ads for Apple Pay (with video) – January 23, 2019
Driven by Apple Pay, contactless payment systems to represent 1 in 3 in-store transactions globally by 2020 – Juniper Research – July 30, 2018
Apple Pay dominates with far more users than Samsung Pay, Google Pay, and other OEM pay systems combined – June 27, 2018
Apple Pay Cash international roll out begins – February 23, 2018
watchOS 4.2 delivers Apple Pay Cash to Apple Watch – December 5, 2017
Apple releases iOS 11.2 with Apple Pay Cash – December 2, 2017
Google’s ‘Chat’ is not end-to-end encrypted like Apple’s iMessage – April 23, 2018
Messages and five other apps Apple really needs to make for Android – March 15, 2017
Why I remain unconvinced when Apple denies plans to introduce iMessage to Android – June 17, 2016
Why Apple’s holding back Messages for Android: Hardware sales – June 15, 2016
Apple’s new iMessage is great, but why the hell isn’t it on Android, yet? – June 14, 2016
Apple’s iMessage and Siri will allow iOS 10 users to send money via Square Cash – June 13, 2016
Apple to deliver iMessage to Android at WWDC – June 9, 2016
Transit card support!! 2019 is the year of transit card support on Android. Apple would be foolish to ignore the trend.
I’m not sure exactly what you mean by Apple ignoring transit card support, but the London Underground Train system has accepted iPhones with Apple Pay for many years for ticketless travel. It was one of the first popular uses for Apple Pay in the U.K.
You don’t need to pre-register on the system or buy a ticket, anybody can just walk up to the barrier and put their iPhone to the reader. You do the same as you finish your journey and at the end of the day, the system looks at all the journeys you did that day and charges you the cheapest type of fare, or even a day ticket to cover multiple journeys.
It’s hugely popular and you see it used all the time. It has proved to be so successful that they are proposing to introduce it for all trains in the U.K shortly.
If you don’t have schemes like that, it’s probably because of decisions made by your transport operators, not Apple.
Credit cards work fine for occasional/casual users, but simply don’t cut it for more complicated needs.
If you’ve used a real transit card implementation on iOS (that’s Suica), then you’ll understand what I mean here.
The Oyster implementation of PayPass is from a time when NFC on smartphones was near-absent and contactless cards were still uncommon. It allows a lowest common denominator approach, which leads to significant shortcomings.
Example: if you’re a concession/senior, you need a special fare that you can’t access with a contactless credit card.
Example: if you use a pass that gives you travel in a set region over a set time, you can’t do that with a contactless credit card.
Example: if you use the ticket machine to load in your seat reservation to your card, you can’t do that with a contactless credit card.
Example: many transit systems use different forms of NFC that are incompatible with contactless credit cards, yet are compatible with the NFC chips that smartphones ship with. They therefore can’t work with Apple Pay because the phone has to simulate a credit card. Unless the operator changes over thousands upon thousands of scanners, you can’t do that with a contactless credit card.
Example: if you want to pay the fares for multiple people with multiple virtual cards, you can’t do that with a contactless credit card.
Google Pay implemented a transit card section of their app recently because this where transit operators want to move. More and more operators will be implementing their cards that will benefit occasional and frequent users alike. Despite its ability to use PayPass, expect to see Oyster on that list soon too.
Apple just needs some zingers in its marketing
A true artist knows these things. It also why I am super rich.
See, I just figured you might be super rich from the creative branding and advertising you’ve managed to work into your blog handle. But now I know it’s your skill.
I asked about Apple Pay at my Kroger market. Was told upper management believes Apple is not secure enough for them. They like Google instead.
In most parts of the modern world you can tap a credit or debit card on a terminal and pay instantly and it’s a lot less hassle than using a phone.
I have Apple Pay but I never use it. Why would I?
There is absolutely no scenario in which using a credit card (even NFC, contact-less) is faster than using a phone.
For a credit card, I need both hands. So, whatever I’m holding in my hand, I have to put down, then pull the wallet out of my pocket, hold it in one hand, then sifts through it with the other, looking for the correct card. I pull the card, tap it, put it back in the wallet, put the wallet back.
With the phone, which is likely already in my hand, i just tap. There are no additional steps; it biometrically authenticates right away (TouchID / FaceID). If it was in my pocket, there are two steps: pull it out, put it back in. My other hand is free.
Promise universal basic income for Apple Pay users.
You would also need to promise free iPhones for everyone residing in the US to fully implement that plan. There are some Democrats in Congress that will be very open to your suggestion.
A Universal Basic Income is not unreasonable. In any nation such as the US which has reserve currency, spending into the economy by funding public programs such as the Pentagon, Single Payer, infrastructure, or even Trump’s Wall stimulates the economy, producing jobs and making people wealthier. It would promote Capitalist consumption, thus enriching small companies and large corporations. However, because it would also unreasonably enrich the already rich, oligarchs, and plutocrats, Republicans would need to reintroduce Republican Teddy Roosevelt’s original graduated income tax at the same approx. rate of 75%. He introduced it as a healthy reaction to the Gilded Age in the 1920s to reduce their unreasonably high incomes and excessive concentration of private wealth. It would stem the growth of the new Gilded Age now with all of its disparities and economic inequalities.
I so seldom see people using contactless payment in the real world, I could count on one hand – what level? Is there a level? There isn’t a level. This is tech that never really found it’s feet, largely because it offers few advantages over what people are already doing (in fact, a card is smaller and more convenient), and I doubt it will. I predict that it will no longer be much of a thing in the near future.
Where do you live? I bet you’re not from Europe or Australia. Where I live, I haven’t withdrawn cash for over 2 years. Sure I’m a bit of an extreme example, but ATMs are being decommissioned and cash use is collapsing. Contactless payments are ubiquitous.
Apples “too cool for school” reluctance to advertise and show people advantages rather than wait for people to figure it out, slows sales. You’d think that apple PAY and Apples health advantages would be advertised day and night to move watches, let alone phones. I see more ads for “life alert” – Help, sales have fallen, and they cant get up.