With the introduction of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus
came a couple additions. These include the Apple Watch and Apple Pay.
Apple Pay lets you use your new iPhone 6 or Apple Watch to
pay in stores and within apps in an easy, secure, and private way.
Credit and debit cards are preloaded to your iPhone using
the Passbook application. You are able to store multiple cards on this, and
when you go to pay, pick whichever.
How it works is it uses a technology called near-field-
communication (NFC) and when you’re in range of the device, you can click to
pay within seconds. However, most businesses at the moment do not have
point-of-sales systems that work with this technology, and it is rather
expensive to buy. Starting in October, 220,000 stores will have the technology
for Apple Pay. That’s only 2.4% of merchants in the US.
Apple Pay has received a lot of backlash with comments
questioning how lazy we have gotten that we cannot even swipe a credit card
anymore. It seems like the cost of the equipment might not be worth the removal of one step-- swiping a credit card. Thoughts also include how habitual we are. Are we going to be so quick in changing our method of payment-- something we've done one way for so long?
A Forbes staffer came up with 7 things Apple Pay needs to succeed,
which included:
1.Simpler than a swipe
2. Perks, Perks, Perks
3.Create an Apple Pay platform
4. Give away the gear
5. Have skin in the game
6. Offer the service to everyone
7. Safety First
Descriptions of these can be found at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2014/09/10/apple-pay-is-doomed-unless-it-can-do-these-7-things/
So what do you all think? Is Apple Pay going to catch on or
fade away?
I was wondering if this new way of payment was receiving any backlash. It does seem that new inventions are making us lazier and lazier but also some apps i could not live without. In my opinion if they make life easier and saved you time than why are people bashing apples new invention. People are stuck in old ways and I think that they should be more open to new and better ways to do things instead of rejecting the new and improved ways.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the biggest potential problem with something like this is definitely security. I feel like making this process digital can make it easier to steal people's information and take advantage of the ease of use. It probably wouldn't take much of a security breach to really make people paranoid and cause this to be a major failure.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alex, my first thought about this was security. Especially with recent hacks such as the Cloud disaster, it really begs the question of - how safe is our convenience? This easy purchasing behavior is good for Apple and for the company trying to sell their product/service but could lead to bad habits for the consumer, leading to irresponsible, mindless purchases. Swiping your card or pulling out some cash connects you more to your purchase, and I don't think all purchases should be as easy as touching on a screen.
ReplyDeleteI think over time Apple Pay will catch on because Apple understands that people are literally attached to their iPhones the majority of a day. Anything that can make a user's life easier, they will give it a shot. In addition, Apple Pay will give user's a sense of exclusiveness, for the time being at least. Apple's biggest worry will be the security issue and ensuring that it will be a safe method of payment, otherwise they will have many lawsuits in the future.
ReplyDelete