

Apple Plans Service That Lets Users Pay With Their IPhone & IPad - ssclafani
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-25/apple-plans-service-that-lets-iphone-users-pay-with-handsets.html

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stretchwithme
Maybe they'll do to the credit card companies what they're did to the music
labels and doing to the cell phone cos. There's plenty of cash in that 3%.

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buro9
Not a chance in hell, unless Apple are opening a bank and manage to switch
everyone to it.

Visa, Mastercard... these are more like trade associations for the banks. They
are effectively owned and operated by the banks, and the only reason
Mastercard exists is to ensure Visa do not have a monopoly and vice versa.

Discovery, Amex... these have their place, but they are members clubs, which
is to say that they have little to no penetration within the marketspace that
is banking customers.

Apple are simply doing the equivalent of a PayPal using a mobile. They aren't
replacing the existing payment systems, they are becoming one more
intermediary in the chain. The actual billing is likely to be done by the
mobile subscription service... AT&T and the like rather than Apple. All phones
are getting this, not just Apple mobile devices.

This stuff also isn't new, in Japan near-field payments have existed for a
long time and are taken for granted in many types of services (vending
machines for example). It's just that finally this is moving westwards
(eastwards if your perspective is different).

[edit]I notice the down votes, but this isn't spam or trolling it's just a
different opinion. It's not even an uneducated opinion as my ex-girlfriend
worked for Visa for 6 years and my current girl lived in Japan for 8 years and
used near field payments there.

Downvoting just because you disagree isn't going to change the argument that
Apple are inserting themselves into the payments process only superficially
and that contrary to the parent post they aren't, and couldn't, move into
replacing the credit card companies as the card companies _are_ the banks.

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matdwyer
I'm a bit excited about the advertising possibilities - I know it is a bit
creepy, but if an ad company knew what I spent money on (generally), my
shopping habits, and where I am, then I'd expect extremely relevant ads that
would be interesting & useful.

(This is coming from someone who actually likes advertising when it's
targeted)

Obviously security would be a massive thing for this - I'd see it useful for
things like Starbucks, but I wouldn't really want to have it authorized for
anything over say $50

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faire
Different tech (2D barcode scanned at register) and an indirect form of
payment (pre-loaded card potentially linked to a CC), but Starbucks did just
add national support for payment via iPhone
(<http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20029001-233.html>). I'm curious, has
anyone had experience (good or bad) with payment via mobile in Japan?

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izendejas
"Apple also could use NFC to improve how it delivers mobile ads to customers’
handsets and charge higher fees for those ads, Crone said. NFC would let
Apple’s iAd advertising network personalize ads to the places where a customer
is spending money."

Minority-report-like world, here we come...
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBaiKsYUdvg>

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Matija
Looks exciting, but at the same time, I am not sure if Apple is the company I
want to have as the pioneer of this type of service. I would certainly not
welcome payment terminals that accept ONLY iOS devices, and from the article,
it looks like they are doing exactly that.

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elliottkember
I can't read the article, because the Bloomberg site, in its infinite wisdom,
shows me the mobile homepage. By the headline alone, it sounds like bad news
for Square.

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lurch_mojoff
The article mostly talks about a supposed confirmation by some analyst person
that Apple will add NFC support to the next batch of iOS devices. The payment
service seems to be basically conjecture. If the part about NFC is true, and
especially if it is a 3rd party accessible, programmable NFC system, it could
actually be very, very good news for Square - that would make things like
phone to phone payments possible, it would make it possible to read those new
Visa and Mastercard contactless credit cards, and so on.

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Zev
_..that would make things like phone to phone payments possible.._

Maybe I'm missing something, but, why couldn't Square do something like this
on their own already?

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elvirs
is it safe to declare Square dead?

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lacker
Square is doing the opposite thing, letting you _receive_ payments from a
credit card to an iPhone. This would be letting you _send_ payments from an
iPhone to some other device.

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trezor
I remember this once being attempted 15 years ago or more in Norway, except
with Nokia phones and the biggest (former state-owned) telco. Ignoring for the
moment the obvious vendor lockin, it was a disaster anyway.

It suffered the same problem this one will: No added benefit over cash or
credit-cards which people already have. Not to mention shops had to replace
their payment-equipment and opt-in for this for little perceived extra value
and there was really, really no market demand what so ever.

So as a consumer you had two choices:

1\. Take up your bank-card, enter-security code and be done.

2\. Or ask if you could pay with your "phone", and if you could then pick up
your phone, see that it said the same as the display on the counter, enter a
security code and then get your _bank-card_ charged. If not, see step 1.

Can anyone see why this wasn't successful? Can anyone see why this would ever
be successful? What does adding the phone into the mix add of value?

I'm not saying that this can't possibly work or will never happen, just that
it's been tried before and the main reasons it didn't work back then haven't
fundamentally changed in any significant way, except more people now have
bank-cards and credit-cards further undermining whatever reason it should have
to gain traction.

If this thing takes off just because it's an Apple-thing/iThing, I will be
amazed by people's gullibility.

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tjogin
What if it takes off just because it's well-designed and customer focused,
like most things Apple?

Are people really gullible, or are you bad at understanding what makes
technology take off? I mean, just consider the options here; either millions
of people are gullible and will jump on to anything called "iSomething" -- or,
_you're_ not that good at understanding what makes technology approachable and
useful for most people.

For reference: the lower-case i in the name of the iPad is not what made it
take off. It's that for the first time, someone made a _well-designed_ purpose
built tablet.

~~~
trezor
_What if it takes off just because it's well-designed and customer focused,
like most things Apple?_

I've had both an iPod and an iPhone. I'm not scoffing at Apple's ability to
deliver.

However a very real thing is some people's attitude towards Apple being some
kind of tech-God which cannot do anything wrong. They will praise anything
they do (since Apple is now a status-symbol and they want to promote the
status of their owned Apple devices) and apologize for any shortcomings or try
to hide them under the carpet. That was what my remark was aimed at.

Now back to the point. If you read the article and see what is being
envisioned/promoted you will see that it's the same thing all over again:
Mobile device set to replace credit/debit-cards.

And ask yourself: If you need to make a payment, regardless of shiny UI and
polished product finish, what will be simplest and most practical? A tiny card
+ PIN code or _a freaking iPad_ with a soft keyboard and an complex, alpha-
numerical iTunes-password?

Just trying to picture the iPad-payment scenario in my mind turns into comedy-
sketches about the tech-stupidity and hype running wild. Actually I'm seeing
this very vividly as a SNL skit.

It will not be elegant, it will not be practical and it will not be better
than what we have already. And in the end, it will charge the same credit-card
you could have paid with in the first place.

Tell me again, what value can this possibly add?

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tjogin
If it won't be elegant and simple to use, it will never see the light of day.

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smackfu
Like Ping! Oh wait...

