What the heck?
Payments go even more contactless
It’s common to see execs from other Silicon Valley companies take the stage to unveil their wares during Apple’s public events. Much rarer is seeing Apple participate in other companies’ shows, let alone use their stages to make announcements. But that’s what happened at the payment industry’s Transact conference in May, a month before WWDC. Jennifer Bailey, the VP responsible for Apple Pay, revealed support for NFC tags that would enable contactless payments in new scenarios such as car parking and “micro-mobility” (otherwise known as scooter rental).
Depending on where you live, this may not sound new. Many of us are already so used to tapping our iPhone or Apple Watch to pay for items that we can get caught out if a vendor doesn’t accept it. In Chicago, the transit system accepts Apple Pay (along with contactless bank cards) for instant payment by touching your iOS device to a reader. Touch ID or Face ID is used to authenticate the transaction, like at a till point. In Portland, you can
use Apple Pay’s Express Transit mode, which accepts just the proximity of your device to the reader without biometric authentication. These schemes are expanding around the world: even the traditional rummage for correct change to catch a London bus has been replaced by contactless.
The difference is that all of these payments are received by an active, internet–connected terminal. There are other ways to take payments, but they depend on setting up a user account and usually a dedicated app in advance. The new features, available to developers in Apple’s Core NFC framework, will mean users can interact with something as simple as a sticker, using no more than their iOS Wallet. This could also enable Apple Store– like self–service retail payments without visiting a till point. Finally, it’ll be easier for retailers to enroll Apple Pay users in their loyalty card programs via Wallet — convenient, but an area where third parties’ user data mining strategies may sit uneasily with Apple’s privacy ethos.