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Apple Working on Special Version of iPhone for Japan, Will Include FeliCa Tap-to-Pay Chip

nikkudayo said:
The transaction is completed in 0.2 seconds. In Tokyo at the train stations, if you take more than a second to go through the gate you hold up the line. The cards are created so that you do not have to stop walking and you can even run through the ticket gate because of how quickly the card is read.

This is great news if true, and would be the only thing that compelled me to upgrade from my current 6 Plus to a 7 if introduced in the new models this year.
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In Sydney, however, I always need to wait at least 1 second to let the card being read. Sometimes even fail, whether with a card case or not. Re-read takes longer, preventing other passengers catching up train/bus/ferry.

Well...I hope Apple can do the same on opal card so that I only need to carry my phone to take train.
 
friedkimchi said:
Apple Pay: Phone>NFC>Terminal>NFC>Phone>Internet>Bank>Internet>Phone>NFC>Terminal>NFC>Phone

Felica: Phone>Felica>Terminal>Internet>Bank>Internet>Terminal>Felica>Phone

I think this is how it works?
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No, most FeliCa-based systems work like a prepaid payment cards (which you can recharge by using several different ways, including your Smartphone's application and a credit card).

Chortos-2 said:
Other phones (in particular, run-of-the-mill Android phones) have had _apps_ doing FeliCa through their regular NFC chips for years. Why does Apple need a separate chip?
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You'll need to have the separate FeliCa chip in addition to the NFC chip and the application. Pretty much every phone (except the iPhone) has one of those chips in Japan.
 
Btw, so much international phone. We still need to carefully choose the country to buy our iPhone.
 
lk400 said:
Japan is a huge market for Apple (much bigger than Australia), and FELICA based payment is almost everywhere. And they aren't about to start supporting the international standard. Makes perfect sense for Apple to support FELICA. Personally I can't wait!
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Yeah I will have to buy my next iPhone in Japan to get the nice FeliCa in it and replace my Icoca ;)
 
MacRumors said:
FeliCa is a tap-to-pay format developed by Sony and built into cards that are used to access Japan's railway and bus system. FeliCa is faster than Apple Pay, allowing transactions to occur in a fraction of a second, which makes it suitable for use in a fast-paced transit environment. It's also able to store e-money that can be used at vending machines and cafes across the country.
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Sony: good at technology, terrible at naming stuff.
 
Superhai said:
It depends on the scenario you are comparing. If you look at solutions for the Tokyo Metro and Japan Rail in the rush hours, and look at payment solutions the total transaction speed is required. Both can be used, but the speed advantage makes the other realistic while the other will be a bottleneck.
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Yep.


In the case of transit tickets as above, it's like with most other systems... the actual charge isn't done until you exit, and is done on the local chip (or card emulation if a smartphone).

Felica cards also always use the highest data rates (most physical NFC cards use the lowest rates), and supposedly have a quicker initial comms handshake. That part is all in the NFC controller, of course, and Felica has its own version.

I had read that banks, smartphone makers and sellers (e.g. DoCoMo) were tired of paying Sony royalties for Felica, though, and were going to move to standard NFC. I take it that never happened? I know that some companies looked into the cost of conversion and decided it simply wasn't worth it.
 
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So would this mean I'd have to travel to Japan to buy the phone to get this feature? I go to japan about twice a month now and this would be quite useful.
 
Junior117 said:
If this is true, why is it better to add them only to phones sold in Japan rather than adding them to all phones? Wouldn't that just make more sense?

I mean, I can already see some people going to Japan often and using this technology, only to go back and use something else. If they truly want to replace the wallet, then having all phones doing the same thing instead of having some phones do different things is pretty much the way to go (unless I'm missing something obvious).
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Actually that is a very good thought, An add-on for those who have to go to Japan? Maybe something disposable That attaches to the Phone?
 
We had a blast using these:
6768157447_edacbe4dea_z.jpg


Looks like FeliCa is basically the same. I hope there will come a time where all countries do this some one day...... Somehow I don't think Apple would wanna give up Apple Pay though
 
MechaSpanky said:
I would guess market size. Japan has a large population with a considerable amount of disposable income.

Mecha
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Felica NFC payments have been available for over 10 years in Japan and is now the de-facto mobile payment standard. If Apple wanted a part of the mobile payment market they don't really have a choice but to use the standard that consumers and business are familiar with.
 
DragonJade said:
That's incorrect. There are a lot more than two mobile payment systems in Japan. Excluding ones like ID, WAON, and Edy which are used to make payments in stores, for transportation there are: RapiCa, TOICA, ICOCA, Nagasaki Smart Card, passca, and PASPY, to name but a few.
[doublepost=1472175347][/doublepost]Many phones in Japan have had the FeliCa chip in them for around 12 years. It's about time Apple caught on.
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I remeber very well how before I got an iPhone I always wanted to get a Japanese phone, because they are so damn feature-packed.

Damn, I still want one for nostalgia alone.

Glassed Silver:ios
 
kdarling said:
I had read that banks, smartphone makers and sellers (e.g. DoCoMo) were tired of paying Sony royalties for Felica, though, and were going to move to standard NFC. I take it that never happened? I know that some companies looked into the cost of conversion and decided it simply wasn't worth it.
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Hong Kong's Octopus is in the middle of a transition from the Felica physical layer to the standard ISO 14443. They've been selling dual format ISO compatible for years, so you can use smartphones/home readers to access it, and I believe their modern terminals are all dual-mode. Now they've mounted a campaign to trade out the remaining Felica only cards, and eventually disable them. I also know that some newer transit systems in the US launched on ISO.

This has nothing to do with the application that runs on the card, however. There's a ton of those and I don't know what Sony's rights are with that.
 
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I wouldn't be surprised that the 2017 model iPhone will add full FeliCa compatible functionality into the NFC mobile system. That way, not only will it support something like Mobile Suica and Rakuten Edy in Japan, but also the Octopus payment system used in Hong Kong (though it will be interesting to see is the iPhone NFC subsytem will be compatible with the updated Octupus cards).
 
Glassed Silver said:
I remeber very well how before I got an iPhone I always wanted to get a Japanese phone, because they are so damn feature-packed.

Damn, I still want one for nostalgia alone.

Glassed Silver:ios
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When I was stationed in Japan in the 90's was amazed at the smart phones local people were wearing! I can imagine Nipon has so many NFC devices it isn't even funny. Plus you could eat 3 meals a day from the numerous vending machines all around!
 
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Seattle city buses can't even make change when riders pay for boarding. It's like being back in the 20th Century.
 
Rojaaemon said:
Seattle city buses can't even make change when riders pay for boarding. It's like being back in the 20th Century.
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Oh, you’ll be surprised: Japanese buses don’t give change when you pay in cash either. Instead, the monster payment machine has a separate slot that simply exchanges large coins for small but doesn’t pay for the ride, which you’re supposed to use while the bus is in motion (despite signs asking you to remain seated until the bus stops).
 
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Glassed Silver said:
I remeber very well how before I got an iPhone I always wanted to get a Japanese phone, because they are so damn feature-packed.

Damn, I still want one for nostalgia alone.

Glassed Silver:ios
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I still love my first Japanese phone. The first time I saw one I though it was a small kid's toy. Back in 2000, my phone had it's own email address, real internet access (none of this WAP rubbish), voice memo, voice mail on the phone to save you having to make expensive calls to access your voice mail box (why can't phone companies nowadays offer this function?), rudimentary voice control, and you could change the colour of the display. They don't make them like they used to. Talk about candy bar phones, they were nothing compared to the ones in Japan. Those were really candy bar phones, not the big fat type everywhere else in the world.

It was a far cry from my brick of a Nokia I was using earlier that year.
 

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