I'm pretty sure it will allow Apple Pay to Apple Pay, no?
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iOS 15.4 Beta 2 Adds 'Tap to Pay on iPhone' Framework
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we’ve had them for 10 years now. it’s not about that at all. cards get replaced every few years
what are you on about? even my current workplace has gone through 2 different generations of nfc card readers in the 2 years i’ve been there.
my local supermarkets also.
it’s not about that at all.
it’s about the push for better. america is lazy with card tech obviously.
Third World countries? This is similar to the countries that had minimal wired rural telephone service and only achieved "universal" phone service with the advent of cellular technology.
Developing economies have a tendency to skip expensive intermediate technologies (like dedicated card readers) and implement lower-cost/higher-tech solutions sooner. In rich countries banks and card processors can force their merchants to use higher-cost terminal systems (that they sell to the merchants). There's more vendor push-back in developing economies, for obvious reasons. So if the banks/processors want the big bucks (skimming a percentage of every transaction) that they get from near-universal implementation, they may have to forgo the ancillary revenues from selling card readers/terminals in order to gain that vendor acceptance.
This is another step towards the "death of cash." Governments prefer all financial transactions be visible/traceable (and potentially taxable). Banks prefer to not handle/safeguard cash. All but mom-and-pop businesses prefer that their employees not handle cash. So if the smart phones already in the hands of nearly the entire population can be used to reduce the use of cash in business... it's going to happen.
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Sometimes Apple uses its hardware/software platforms to create new services, sometimes they add new features to the for the sake of encouraging wider adoption of its hardware (once they have the hardware, they have an opening for selling unrelated services). I think this will turn out to be the latter - selling more iPads and iPhones to merchants, field service workers (plumbers, appliance repair, etc.).
Still... While for now this is all about accepting tap-to-pay cards, it will undoubtedly extend to receiving Apple Pay payments as well. Why would an Apple Pay user accustomed to tapping their Watch or iPhone on a payment terminal want to go back to pulling a card out of their wallet? Of course Apple Pay has been delivering a revenue stream to Apple since Day One.
Not only does this sell more devices to business, but as Apple learned long ago in the personal computer business, consumers tend to buy the same equipment they use at work for their at-home use. MS-DOS/Windows PCs at work, the same at home.
Altogether, Apple's control over software and hardware means that when they do offer a new capability like this, they're able to roll it out across several generations of product, not just the latest. Rapid adoption can be critical - an overnight software roll-out to an already-installed hardware base can translate to a one- or two-year head start over the fractured Android market. And once merchants are accustomed to using iPhones/iPads for direct payment, they're not going to be in a hurry to switch platforms.
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Getting back to government for a minute. Despite various government attempts (pushed by Apple's competitors, of course) to open Apple's platform, Apple's arguments for security/privacy tend to be supported by banks and other financial institutions. So an Apple that is a government ally in reducing/killing the cash economy is unlikely to get major regulatory pushback on maintaining a closed hardware/software environment. If Treasury says to Consumer Protection, "We need this to be locked down," Consumer Protection will start advocating the closed system as a form of consumer protection.
Developing economies have a tendency to skip expensive intermediate technologies (like dedicated card readers) and implement lower-cost/higher-tech solutions sooner. In rich countries banks and card processors can force their merchants to use higher-cost terminal systems (that they sell to the merchants). There's more vendor push-back in developing economies, for obvious reasons. So if the banks/processors want the big bucks (skimming a percentage of every transaction) that they get from near-universal implementation, they may have to forgo the ancillary revenues from selling card readers/terminals in order to gain that vendor acceptance.
This is another step towards the "death of cash." Governments prefer all financial transactions be visible/traceable (and potentially taxable). Banks prefer to not handle/safeguard cash. All but mom-and-pop businesses prefer that their employees not handle cash. So if the smart phones already in the hands of nearly the entire population can be used to reduce the use of cash in business... it's going to happen.
-----
Sometimes Apple uses its hardware/software platforms to create new services, sometimes they add new features to the for the sake of encouraging wider adoption of its hardware (once they have the hardware, they have an opening for selling unrelated services). I think this will turn out to be the latter - selling more iPads and iPhones to merchants, field service workers (plumbers, appliance repair, etc.).
Still... While for now this is all about accepting tap-to-pay cards, it will undoubtedly extend to receiving Apple Pay payments as well. Why would an Apple Pay user accustomed to tapping their Watch or iPhone on a payment terminal want to go back to pulling a card out of their wallet? Of course Apple Pay has been delivering a revenue stream to Apple since Day One.
Not only does this sell more devices to business, but as Apple learned long ago in the personal computer business, consumers tend to buy the same equipment they use at work for their at-home use. MS-DOS/Windows PCs at work, the same at home.
Altogether, Apple's control over software and hardware means that when they do offer a new capability like this, they're able to roll it out across several generations of product, not just the latest. Rapid adoption can be critical - an overnight software roll-out to an already-installed hardware base can translate to a one- or two-year head start over the fractured Android market. And once merchants are accustomed to using iPhones/iPads for direct payment, they're not going to be in a hurry to switch platforms.
=====
Getting back to government for a minute. Despite various government attempts (pushed by Apple's competitors, of course) to open Apple's platform, Apple's arguments for security/privacy tend to be supported by banks and other financial institutions. So an Apple that is a government ally in reducing/killing the cash economy is unlikely to get major regulatory pushback on maintaining a closed hardware/software environment. If Treasury says to Consumer Protection, "We need this to be locked down," Consumer Protection will start advocating the closed system as a form of consumer protection.
That isn’t the problem. The problem is that the US started the rollout much much later than everyone else. Europe already had nearly 100% penetration of contactless cards and readers by 2014. In contrast, the US was just starting the rollout of contactless in 2014 and only had 3% at that same time. Even now, magnetic stripe -long since abandoned elsewhere- is still widely used in the US. Not to mention all the restaurants and bars there, which are stuck in 1990 still taking the customers’ cards away in order to process payments. And the gas stations, with most still using the same magnetic stripe readers they’ve had at least since 1990 in the pumps area.
Correct. For example, Here in Mexico gas stations did not invest in those more expensive pumps with built in card readers. With the advent of standalone wireless POS, card acceptance at gas stations became universal almost instantly. Later, this also meant it was much easier to pay contactless at gas stations in Mexico than in the US, where it will take ages for all of that those expensive pumps they bought to be updated.
Another example are sit down restaurants. In 3rd world countries they easily switched to wireless standalone POS because they could lease them. In the US, they must buy the equipment so either they don’t upgrade or they go for what’s cheaper: simply buy one wired pinpad just to be able to read chip cards and continue processing all payments away from the tables like before.
This is a good reason why it is not always good to be "first." Second, third, and fourth generation tech will come out, and thats the one that is usually more affordable, and more achievable, therefore gets better implemented.
We better learn to love the current generation of how Apple Pay works as is, looks like we will be stuck with it for quite some time after other countries have moved on to something else.