It's a complementary service to the hardware. iCloud is boring but became a good selling point.
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Apple Looking to Develop Mobile Payment Service
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It's a complementary service to the hardware. iCloud is boring but became a good selling point.
actually i could just place a plastic/sticky like transparent sticker and you can press thumb to it...and i'll just your thumbprint and make me money!
Yeah, because no one would notice that :roll eyes:
and you'd have to get physical access to the phone to apply it and take it off. genius idea.
Apple isn't keeping NFC off their phones because there's no future in NFC. They're keeping it off because their strategy has always been to proprietize as much as they can. If there's a standard port or cable or interface solution out there, Apple's not gonna use it unless they absolutely have to.
Instead they create out their own proprietary solution and see if it flies. They differentiate their products that way, maintain their walled garden, and make a killing when people spend $25 to buy a proprietary lightning cable that only cost them $3 to make.
Same reason Nintendo uses proprietary discs and Sony uses its own memory sticks instead of SD cards. It's a valid strategy that has nothing to do with the viability of existing tech.
On that note forecasts show global NFC and NFC Point of Sales going up beating out other means like mobile web. And Passbook is a crappy stopgap solution.
Oh, no!
I generally love all things Apple, but iTunes is a huge exception. Have you ever tried to get customer service from iTunes? A refund?
I've had iTunes charge me to download videos and apps I've already purchased. There's no live customer support, the only option is email, which gets answered in about 24ish hours. The first reply (after the automailer) is always a boilerplate response that shows the responder hasn't even read my request. It takes 3-4 emails back and forth to get a resolution, which more often than not involves my just giving up without getting the deserved refund.
As I said, I love all things Apple but iTunes is an abysmal experience. I'm surprised there hasn't been an outroar against it.
I generally love all things Apple, but iTunes is a huge exception. Have you ever tried to get customer service from iTunes? A refund?
I've had iTunes charge me to download videos and apps I've already purchased. There's no live customer support, the only option is email, which gets answered in about 24ish hours. The first reply (after the automailer) is always a boilerplate response that shows the responder hasn't even read my request. It takes 3-4 emails back and forth to get a resolution, which more often than not involves my just giving up without getting the deserved refund.
As I said, I love all things Apple but iTunes is an abysmal experience. I'm surprised there hasn't been an outroar against it.
several channels
I might have agreed with you until a friend recently ran into the differentiation between iTunes cards and Apple Store cards.
They are NOT interchangeable, and I assume that the differentiation is deliberate. I can see the iTunes cards continuing to be "elastic" in pricing while the Apple Store ones morph into firm-value payment cards. Maybe they'll change the name.
One question is, of course, whether Apple will apply the existing pile of iTunes accounts to Apple Store accounts. It has to leverage the huge base somehow but the devil's in the details. Obviously they won't do that with people who already have both, a smallish subset I would imagine, but what about all the people who have only the iTunes variety? Will they all suddenly have an Apple Store account?
I might have agreed with you until a friend recently ran into the differentiation between iTunes cards and Apple Store cards.
They are NOT interchangeable, and I assume that the differentiation is deliberate. I can see the iTunes cards continuing to be "elastic" in pricing while the Apple Store ones morph into firm-value payment cards. Maybe they'll change the name.
One question is, of course, whether Apple will apply the existing pile of iTunes accounts to Apple Store accounts. It has to leverage the huge base somehow but the devil's in the details. Obviously they won't do that with people who already have both, a smallish subset I would imagine, but what about all the people who have only the iTunes variety? Will they all suddenly have an Apple Store account?
Apple has fine skills in software and hardware. Mobile services, not so much.
Before they become a mobile payments service, they need to learn how to keep it running 24/7. And how not to take it down for hours for updates. Or take days to fix if a security hole is found.
huh ?
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Couldn't agree more ! This level of bulletproof service has not been part of Apple's DNA (think: MobileMe).
If Apple is to be successful with mobile payments then it needs to have much better reliability and a vastly expanded, and more responsive, support organization.
If I were in Tim Cook's shoes, there would be a rampup of this capability to support iCloud and make all those complaints vanish. If the iCloud problems persisted then it would be a big red flag to not roll out the payment service. Interestingly, I suspect that Cook might very well be a better judge of this than Steve Jobs would have been.
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Couldn't agree more ! This level of bulletproof service has not been part of Apple's DNA (think: MobileMe).
If Apple is to be successful with mobile payments then it needs to have much better reliability and a vastly expanded, and more responsive, support organization.
If I were in Tim Cook's shoes, there would be a rampup of this capability to support iCloud and make all those complaints vanish. If the iCloud problems persisted then it would be a big red flag to not roll out the payment service. Interestingly, I suspect that Cook might very well be a better judge of this than Steve Jobs would have been.
I've had multiple experiences contacting iTunes support for refunds and they've always come through for me each time. They even refunded me an iTunes Match subscription without much effort. In fact, I find they err on the side of the customer more times than not.
I think Apple is a great service provider and anyone who thinks otherwise just isn't thinking of the grander scheme of things. Each day apple delivers billions of iMessages, they send even more push notifications, and their services are hardly ever down. Give credit where credit is due. Apple has improved a lot since MobileMe.
All this goes to the bin, if the whole reason why your visiting an Apple store in the first place is not to purchase anything, but to "Get your iPhone repaired."
Add it the problems already with TouchID, not always working (which is what Apple's direction is being "more secure" to prefer this over manual entry), seems Apple would want to fix this first, them implement it as payment in their stores, otherwise they still gonna get the same amount of complains they are now.
I for one never rely on any of these technologies... The "convenience" for a stolen iPhone too. No thanks...
Add it the problems already with TouchID, not always working (which is what Apple's direction is being "more secure" to prefer this over manual entry), seems Apple would want to fix this first, them implement it as payment in their stores, otherwise they still gonna get the same amount of complains they are now.
I for one never rely on any of these technologies...
The "convenience" for a stolen iPhone too. No thanks...
No, it doesn't mean that. I have seen no Ghosts or Extraterrestrials either but it doesn't mean they don't exist.
Should just buy Discover Card
Should just buy Discover Card. Spin off parts that are not related to mobile payments (i.e., loan service). Rebrand Discover Card to new name and utilize its network.
Should just buy Discover Card. Spin off parts that are not related to mobile payments (i.e., loan service). Rebrand Discover Card to new name and utilize its network.
Re: the likelihood that such a service would be restricted to only the newest devices - seems unlikely to me. The adoption of such a service would be dependant on number of potential users, so Apple would want to get it into as many hands as possible. The problem I see is, as with FaceTime and iMessage, it's proprietary - only Apple users can use it. Services like this would be better to be cross-platform, in my opinion.
Re: denying old devices new software features - of course that doesn't make the old device obsolete, stop whining. Do you want to spend money once and. Have the latest thing forever? Well, so do I, but how would it be funded?
Re: denying old devices new software features - of course that doesn't make the old device obsolete, stop whining. Do you want to spend money once and. Have the latest thing forever? Well, so do I, but how would it be funded?
And take on the heavy regulation that banks are subject to. Brilliant!
Banks don't really make their money on taking deposits and giving you check writing services. See the low interest rate they offer you to get deposits to show that the banks really have little interest in getting you to open a checking or savings account.
Now I think what you want Apple to go after is the credit card companies. Those guys are making HUGE money. And that sounds like what you really want Apple to disrupt. But the main thing that credit card companies do is extend credit and then get a payment from their customers at month end (taking a cut from the store). I doubt Apple wants to start extending credit to 100s of millions of customers.
This idea will go nowhere fast with Apple's current technology.
Here's the problem: nobody has made point-of-sale terminals that can communicate with cellphones over Bluetooth 4.0 (LE). Meanwhile point-of-sale terminals that communicate with cellphones over NFC are common in Japan, South Korea and parts of Europe.
This is why I think Apple may seriously look at building the iPhone 6--which will be an all-new "from ground up" device--to include an NFC radio/antenna subsystem that is compatible with the Sony developed FeliCa NFC communications standard. If that happens, Apple would clean up the eastern Asian market in no time flat.
Here's the problem: nobody has made point-of-sale terminals that can communicate with cellphones over Bluetooth 4.0 (LE). Meanwhile point-of-sale terminals that communicate with cellphones over NFC are common in Japan, South Korea and parts of Europe.
This is why I think Apple may seriously look at building the iPhone 6--which will be an all-new "from ground up" device--to include an NFC radio/antenna subsystem that is compatible with the Sony developed FeliCa NFC communications standard. If that happens, Apple would clean up the eastern Asian market in no time flat.
Seems an obvious move. I hope it's more successful than Passbook. There's still hardly anything on there. It's just airline and hotel apps. I can't remember the last time I saw a new provider added. Such a shame as I thought Passbook was a really good idea.
And now you think another payment system would be a good idea? If I were Apple I would be skeptical.
I've never really seen what problem passbook is designed to solve. When I get my debit card of of my wallet to pay it's hardly any effort to get my loyalty card out as well, easier, in fact, than getting my phone out. Now, if I've got my phone out to pay then the equation changes. If course, it'd be a bit of a pain having to switch apps from the passbook to the payment app. I wonder if what we'll actually see will be an integration of the two - an API so passbook developers can add a pay option, ie there won't be an iPay app by Apple, you'll use the app belonging to the shop you're in.
Passbook was a workaround for lack of a NFC based payment system and the fact that Apple had no infrastructure in place.
Unfortunately as we've seen, Passbook has been quite a failure.
But it's not a payment system is it? I thought it was just a loyalty card style thing. And I'm sure if Apple wanted NFC they'd use NFC.
Apple can't use NFC. To use it they would have to pay royalties. Apple hate to pay royalties. They are that cheap (at expense of their customers I might add). Remember how long it took them to switch to USB 3 from USB 2? They were later than everybody else by a couple of years seemingly because they did not want to buy separate chips for USB 3 controllers ($3 per chip).
Apple are cheap? Sorry, but that's absurd. Yeah, they like to make a profit, so maybe if the chips they want cost extra they'll charge the customer more, but I think it's pretty clear Apple pick what they think makes the best product and worry about cost later. I have no idea why they took a while adopting USB3 (didn't know they had, can't say I've paid any attention at all the connector types lately), perhaps they waited till they thought there were widespread uses for the new ones, perhaps they wanted to encourage adoption of an alternative connector, I don't know. They may even have been wrong, I'm certainly no saying they're always right, but cheap?
Yes they are cheap. They definitely don't hesitate to raise the price of their products when it increases their profits but not when it benefits someone else. BluRay would be another example. Why pay royalties for it when you can deprive your customers of by far the best available source of video? Easy solution.
I suppose they don't think it's important. I don't think the TouchID sensor was cheap, or the process for manufacturing the unibody, the retina display when it was new. I think it would be more accurate to say they're careful - they include what they consider worth including.
Also, 'depriving' suggests they're stopping people having something. If customers think the latest version of USB or BluRay is that important they can buy a different computer, and Apple knows that, it's not like once you've bought a Mac nobody will sell you a Lenovo any more.