A take on ApplePay

A take on ApplePay

Whats the difference with ApplePay? Apple equipping their devices with NFC was the major hold back for contactless payment. Apple used this strong position well to line up credit card companies surely with a good % deal. They did not stop there. They partnered issuing banks and major merchants. This way they have major partners from every part of the value chain creditcard — issuing banks — merchant. All smaller players hardly can hold that train up.

The process of paying through the finger print scanner does away with typing in one of those tens of pin numbers you have. The credit card data is not given to the merchant. The data on the phone can be remotely wiped. It is stored in a special secure element on the chip. Only a company that designs its own chips can do that. Credit card companies have less cost when this data is so much harder to be stolen.

Having solved security in the most sensitive area — payment — puts Apple into the prime position for securing all those other cards you have in your wallet. Passbook started from the least secure side. Now the ApplePay infrastructure complements the Passbook framework.

Is there anything the rest of the industry can do to live up? As often Apple restricts this service to users having an iPhone. So the rest of the Smartphone customers can be catered. The better the user experience is for those non-apple customers, the less will switch over to apple. Therefor establishing a vibrant, well working partner system to cater those customers will do the trick. How would that ecosystem look like? Rethink your position.