That has always been Apple's bread and butter. Google's too. Making something new out of things that already exist. Apple does it really well.
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Google Acquires Softcard Technology, Inks Deal With Carriers to Pre-Install Google Wallet on Android Devices
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That has always been Apple's bread and butter. Google's too. Making something new out of things that already exist. Apple does it really well.
And whether that counts as "innovation" is such a subjective term, that I tend to dismiss anyone's claim that Apple is innovating, not innovating, or that they are innovating more or less than they did before.
Here's one: It's very secure, and never exposes your credit cards to a waiter who swipes your card in his little hand swiper before swiping it in the restaurant's payment system. Then weeks or months later, you find it with a huge charge. Or you could pay at Target even if they have malware on their payment system, and all they get out of the deal is a payment, and you're none the worse.
Exactly. Whenever it's a Google, Samsung or Microsoft ad, people go into zombie attack mode. In this case they are compleely missing the bigger picture.
For as slick as Apple Pay is, NFC payments are accepted at a very low percentage of US POS terminals. The more customers who get onboard with NFC, the more pressure will be put on retailers to support this option.
Hopefully the ill-fated CurrentC experiment will finally play out this year and NFC adoption rates will start to climb.
Seriously The Google Bashers Are Being Hilarious
Let's say I own an Android phone. I want to use Apple Pay. Ooops. I can't. So I have to use Google Wallet. The reverse is true too. Suppose I want to use Google Wallet but have an iPhone. I can't. That is it. That is all. End of story.
1. There is no competition between Apple Pay and Google Wallet because both are ecosystem dependent.
2. There is no reason for any retailer or bank that currently supports Apple Pay to reject Google Wallet. (Unless the entity objects to sharing data with Google, a requirement that Google will abandon if they have to.)
3. Which means that both Google Wallet and Apple Pay will succeed. Even if Apple Pay is used more and is used to buy more expensive items, Google Wallet will have more than enough users and purchasers to be viable. Consider the competing app stores as an example. Apple has THE App Store with $150 billion in revenue in 2014. Apple mobile device owners pay more for apps, developers make more on iOS, iOS has better quality apps, gets apps months - and sometimes more than a year - first, and has more exclusive apps. Good for Apple. But the thing is that the Google Play store had $95 billion in revenue in 2014 (or $5 billion less than the App Store had in 2013). And where the App Store had $50 billion in year-over-year growth (from $100 billion to $150 billion), the Google Play store had $45 billion in year-over-year growth (from $50 billion to $95 billion). Which means that the Google Play store is not going anywhere.
Now maybe your hope was that Apple Pay was going to be the thing that finally drove Android users to abandon their Galaxy Notes, Moto Xs and HTC Ones, causing Android to become unprofitable and collapse. Oh yeah, that and Apple finally adopting phablets (after years of claiming that they never would). Sorry. That was never going to happen. Even with Apple's great fourth quarter resulting in a decline in Android sales, a record number of Android devices were still sold last year because the first 3 quarters were so huge. How huge? Every Android manufacturer but Samsung and Sony had record revenue and profits last year.
Android isn't going anywhere, which means that Google Wallet won't either.
Let's say I own an Android phone. I want to use Apple Pay. Ooops. I can't. So I have to use Google Wallet. The reverse is true too. Suppose I want to use Google Wallet but have an iPhone. I can't. That is it. That is all. End of story.
1. There is no competition between Apple Pay and Google Wallet because both are ecosystem dependent.
2. There is no reason for any retailer or bank that currently supports Apple Pay to reject Google Wallet. (Unless the entity objects to sharing data with Google, a requirement that Google will abandon if they have to.)
3. Which means that both Google Wallet and Apple Pay will succeed. Even if Apple Pay is used more and is used to buy more expensive items, Google Wallet will have more than enough users and purchasers to be viable. Consider the competing app stores as an example. Apple has THE App Store with $150 billion in revenue in 2014. Apple mobile device owners pay more for apps, developers make more on iOS, iOS has better quality apps, gets apps months - and sometimes more than a year - first, and has more exclusive apps. Good for Apple. But the thing is that the Google Play store had $95 billion in revenue in 2014 (or $5 billion less than the App Store had in 2013). And where the App Store had $50 billion in year-over-year growth (from $100 billion to $150 billion), the Google Play store had $45 billion in year-over-year growth (from $50 billion to $95 billion). Which means that the Google Play store is not going anywhere.
Now maybe your hope was that Apple Pay was going to be the thing that finally drove Android users to abandon their Galaxy Notes, Moto Xs and HTC Ones, causing Android to become unprofitable and collapse. Oh yeah, that and Apple finally adopting phablets (after years of claiming that they never would). Sorry. That was never going to happen. Even with Apple's great fourth quarter resulting in a decline in Android sales, a record number of Android devices were still sold last year because the first 3 quarters were so huge. How huge? Every Android manufacturer but Samsung and Sony had record revenue and profits last year.
Android isn't going anywhere, which means that Google Wallet won't either.
It seems like they wisely laid low for awhile and tried to figure their app out.
They accurately surmised that the loud complaining after the Apple Pay launch were from a relatiely small minority of diehard Apple fans. They took the hit and rode out the storm.
I still don't think their business model is going to fly...but they aren't feeling the pressure from a large number of angry customers demanding to use Apple pay. So it doesn't seem like they are in a rush to get something launched or on the PR defensive like they were last fall.
The issue I have with Google Wallet on my Note 4 is that all the purchases come through as Google and goes to the services category on my credit card. I get 5% rewards on gas, groceries and drugstores and 1% on everything else. If I use Google Wallet at one of my premium categories I don't get premium rewards. This is on my AMEX.
Does ApplePay carry through the category reward on the credit card charge?
Does ApplePay carry through the category reward on the credit card charge?
Apple didn't adopt Google Wallet. ApplePay technology is more advanced, secure and user friendly than Google's, Softcard's and CurrentC's offerings.
This is good news for Android and Apple users but IMO contactless/NFC is never going to get the level of adoption in the US that it has elsewhere.
- Chip and signature (what the US is adopting) is not inconvenient compared to chip and PIN. Signature isn't even required unless you spend more than $25-50, vs. having to enter a PIN for a $1 purchase. Plus, businesses don't even compare the signatures.
- Acceptance at smaller businesses is going to be fairly iffy due to #1. Most of this is due to training issues but some businesses are simply going to have their terminals somewhere that can't be accessed by customers. A good example is restaurants, where I highly doubt they're going to go to tableside payment for the one or two PIN preferring cards they'll see in a month (depending on where they're located of course).
- Issuers have little interest in sending out physical contactless cards, instead relying on Apple and Google to implement it. There's always going to be a significant fraction of smartphone owners who can't or won't use their phones to pay.
And how much R&D did that cost, Google played it smart cause they was testing the waters... What's the point of investing millions into a product people might not use... Apple pay "could" have been a flop
Now that there's competition.. That mean there's a market, which means Google has and will up their game.
Side note.. I can't even use Apple pay cause my bank the American Airlines Credit Union is not yet in bed with Apple and might not never will be. Maybe Google can come up with a secure method without all the negotiations and what not with banks, credit card companies, etc
"In July 2014, Isis announced that it planned to rebrand itself in order to alleviate confusion between it and the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which was also known under the abbreviation 'ISIS'."
Talk about unlucky!
Talk about unlucky!
This is a straight up standards war. Of course there's competition. Having them be ecosystem dependent is all the more reason to call it a competition.
What percentage of retailers accept Apple Pay though? I have no idea, but none of the stores I go to regularly accept it.
Also, it's not credit card fraud that frightens me. It's annoying when it happens but it's usually pretty easy to reverse fraudulent charges and get a new card. Identity theft on the other hand can destroy you financially--and I don't see how Apple Pay protects us from that.
The intellectual property must be patents, because you can be sure that they didn't buy the company for its trademarks.
Softcard's iPhone app is still called ISIS Wallet- and I still have and use it. They seem to have mostly abandoned development for iPhone (or are perhaps forbidden from updating it) after the release of Apple Pay, but it still works decently as a NFC solution on my 5S (though it requires a special $20 case).
I've had my AMEX and MC numbers stolen twice in 25 years of having credit cards. AMEX and Citi flagged the purchases within hours, long before I would have noticed, and reversed them. I had a new card the next day, and it was no skin off my nose. Fraud isn't a compelling reason for me to use AP or Wallet.
Damn, once again, Apple making things relevant. A few I can name off top of my head: Front facing camera, fingerprint scanner, and now mobile payments. Apple wasn't first, but they sure as hell made them relevant. Its funny how Google is ALL OF A SUDDEN serious about mobile payments...
If this acquisition makes NFC terminals more ubiquitous- and helps speed the death of CurrentC - then I'm all for it.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
And when Apple does adopt it: "OMG I can't live without this! Apple's creation = awesome!"