This needs to be on the Apple Watch and not so much on a drop potential, glass shatter device as the iPhone.
Will be.
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It's always good for Apple to guinea test new tech like this on its own employees first. Although internal Apple tests is not an adequate sample, since most of them are already privileged tech nerds, they in no way represent the average "Apple consumer", and how they react and use new technologies will not be the same as how the average Apple consumer reacts. Maybe limited testing (regional?) might be next?
Not all Apple employees are engineering nerds. Among the staffs you will find gardeners, HR folk, secretaries, janitors, finance folk, logistics pros, etc.
Among this large employee population there are more than enough to do fairly accurate early tests.
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It's always good for Apple to guinea test new tech like this on its own employees first. Although internal Apple tests is not an adequate sample, since most of them are already privileged tech nerds, they in no way represent the average "Apple consumer", and how they react and use new technologies will not be the same as how the average Apple consumer reacts. Maybe limited testing (regional?) might be next?
Many folks are eagerly waiting for Costco to turn on its NFC POS checkout and gas pump readers.
Two to three years ago Costco began replacing its old checkout POS terminals wit NFC units. Around the same time, Costco began retrofitting it’s gas pumps with an NFC payment panel. I assume that, but don’t know if, by now that all locations have been so upgraded.
It is known that NFC POS has been in daily use at the Costco HQ store in Issaquah, WA and the “Apple HQ” Costco store in Sunnyvale, CA (also reports out of San Jose, CA).
The above are believed to be test sites for both Apple and Costco employees for instore payments but not for entry/exit control or payments at the pump.
Costco’s big challenge is how to replace entry and POS today via Costco Membership Cards and Costco VISA cards with membership info and pic on it.
By allowing a Costco card in the Apple Wallet (or less likely) a link from the Costco App to NFC, members could verify themselves on entry and simultaneously verify and pay at checkout or pump.
(As I write this, I think of the difference between TouchID and FaceID, where with TouchID multiple fingerprints from different people can be used for verification, but with FaceID only a single face can be used for verification. To my mind, it could be that such functionality may be limited to iPhone X unless Apple institutes a single “preferred” fingerprint for NFC access control.)
It could be that Apple’s opening up NFC for access control will be what is necessary for Costco to finally activate Apple Pay across its store network.
I’m looking forward to what is revealed on this topic next week.