Community

Couple of issues here:

• Apple Pay is a contactless payment solution at present - as opposed to one of the more established on-line and inApp payment methodologies
• Apple Pay has little relevance to retailers at present as it is just a payment methodology which their existing contactless terminals will accept in the same way they accept contactless cards
• Value add to merchants will only take place if (or when) Apple Pay is linked to loyalty and merchant basket level data analysis - which gives rise to privacy issues that Apple has already said it does not want to get involved with
• Apple is competing against an established contactless environment in the UK where consumers are used to using the relatively convenient and frictionless experience of contactless card for low value transactions and (in London) the tube; as against the relatively cumbersome requirement to use a phone (or watch) having authenticated use prior to tap/swipe

Scaling will be a feature of contactless limits, upgrading terminals to accept higher value transactions and the added value functionality that Apple could bring to the payment journey.

This is a bit contradictory...

1. Apple has indicated in the part that it would probably prefer to remain as a platform provider rather than financial instituion - hosting a VISA based Wallet is, therefore, not inconsistent with this.

2. Not clear how VISA helps you "bypass the payments processing chain" - at some point you need to authorise/process/settle a payment and somebody needs to do that - VISA migh help but at some point some technology required at POS to deal with this - NFC/Bluetooth or mobile do not get you round this and retailers are not just going to allow Apple or VISA to introduce technology into their stores to do this

3. Making use of the secure element is interesting but points to a closer tie up with a financial institution and not sure how you get access to provisioning the secure element without some interaction with wireless carriers.

All exciting stuff but as vague and indistinct as ever...