Apple has attracted an impressive list of banks and credit card issuers to support its new mobile payment service Pay Apple . Now all she needs - is to attract more buyers and sellers, writes AsiaReport.
Apple hopes that Pay make buyers forget about their wallets and make purchases with the help of the iPhone and Apple Watch. The system is based on the technology of the near-contact communication (NFC), which, however, have difficulty gaining recognition vendors.The retailer must establish at the checkout reader service payments in one touch. According to Gartner analyst Mark Hung, such readers in the United States are less than 10% of retailers.
Apple announced that, starting in October, iPhone owners will be able to use Apple Pay 220 000 outlets in the United States, including McDonald's, Bloomingdale and Macy's. For comparison, according to the Association of electronic transactions (Electronic Transactions Association), credit and debit cards are accepted over 9 million retail outlets in the United States.
«Apple has rallied around him issuing banks, but not the merchants, - said General Director of the consulting firm Crone Consulting Richard Crone. - Many sellers in the United States, to accept payments via NFC, rejected it. "
Best Buy, for example, set the scanner NFC in many of its stores, but turn them off in 2011, as the cost of supporting the platform was too high, a company spokesman said. The retailer has no plans to change course after the announcement of Apple.
Kind of mobile payments are a victim of the classic dilemma of cause and effect. Smaller merchants are especially reluctant to install such a system, the cost of which may be 300-500 dollars for each device, use them as a small number of buyers. In addition, the commission for the sellers for the use of mobile payments may be higher than on plastic cards, especially debit.
Apple has successful experience in the implementation of the mass dissemination of existing technologies and services - such as happened with the touch screen technology with the creation of iPhone. The company also popularized legal music downloading, creating iTunes and allowing users to buy individual songs instead of entire albums.
NFC technology developed over 10 years ago and touted as the future of mobile payments. In 2011, Google introduced Google Wallet - based on NFC payment service, which has been integrated into many smartphones on Android, but not won great popularity.
Apple is also set to benefit from poor timing. Network of credit cards are now seeking from retailers installation of payment terminals accepting cards with microchip. If they fail to do so, retailers will be responsible instead of banks for any fraud with chip cards, starting in October 2015.
In the process of modernization of the terminals will be connected as many traders contactless readers and will be able to accept payments via NFC. The question is whether Apple to convince retailers to connect NFC-readers.
Some large retailers are skeptical. Senior director of Wal-Mart on the payment strategy Luhtanen Reid confirmed that consumers will not be able to purchase products through the Apple Pay the world's largest retail chain. Instead, Wal-Mart and Best Buy retailers belonging to the support group of mobile technologies Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), which also participates Target.
Payment service MCX only requires downloading the software and can run on existing iPhone models and devices on Android, whereas Apple system is designed only for the latest generation of devices.
Group announced the launch of a mobile wallet CurrentC as a pilot project in some cities to its full launch across the country in 2015. CurrentC will be connected to the current-account users, retailers, gift cards and some credit and debit cards under the brands of retailers, but now this service is not synchronized with traditional credit cards. Unlike Apple Pay, CurrentC not uses NFC - instead retailer of digital scans QR-code in your application for smartphones.
Cash System startup Square, Amazon and PayPal payments do not support NFC, which means that millions of family stores, vans and convenience stores will not be able to take Apple Pay, when it will be launched next month. Representatives of these companies indicated that they do not plan to connect the NFC.
At the same time, the announcement of a new service Apple has attracted interest in the technology. Revel Systems, which supplies software for cash registers retailers such as Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen, on Tuesday took a lot of calls with questions about connecting the NFC, said Chief Technology Officer Chris Siabarra. According to him, the reader NFC along with the software will cost $ 499, although it is hoped that these costs will decrease over time.
"The truth is that today no one uses NFC», - he said, noting that only two of their client from San Francisco, use this payment technology.
Silvio Tavares, CEO of the payment industry group CardLinx Association said that Apple has teamed up with companies such as Walgreens, Subway and Whole Foods Market, whose customers make "everyday purchases" in order to accustom them to the shopping with your iPhone or Apple Watch. If enough customers get used to buy goods so other users can feel the pressure and implement NFC technology and Apple Pay.
"You form a habit, and then it leads to a tipping point - said Tavares. - If someone can do it, then Apple will be able to accurately ".