Really wondering how Apple Pay can succeed where Google Wallet was never able to get mass traction. Hoping for someone an informed discussion. I have a few thoughts, as a user of Google Wallet from the start as to why it never really took off.
Carriers were a problem for starters. Sprint jumped on, but like the other carriers often do, they blocked the deployment of something good for consumers until the carriers could figure out how to profit from it. The carriers had their own service called ISIS, and it was never as good as Google Wallet (and still isn't). It begs the question, how did Apple get around the carrier roadblocks? Owning the platform?
NFC terminals were not widely used. Starting to see them more and more, but not so much because of mobile payment services, but they are coming with chip and pin terminals. Still the NFC capabilities are often turned off or broken. I have started telling all of the places where I see this that they should fix the terminals because millions of iPhone users are coming soon and will want to use the NFC capabilities.
Uninformed users hurt Google Wallet adoption. Let's face it, most consumers really don't care about this. It is still a novelty when I use my phone to pay for something in a store. The clerk always seems to think I am hacking something. Millions of Android users have the ability to use Google Wallet, and just don't.
If Apple solves some of these problems, this will take off. Just having Apple enter this space means more people will be informed, more NFC terminals will work, and carriers will get the hell out of the way.
Here are some things I don't think mattered.
Finger print security while neat, doesn't make the overall system more secure. If my bank card has an NFC chip, and it does, there is no security on that card. Google Wallet is secured with a PIN, and while not the same level of security, its more than the card by itself. Only the transactions run through Apple Pay would have the finger print security, so it does not help the system as a whole.
The credit card companies that come to the table don't matter much either. Discover not on board at launch will not slow Apple Pay. Google has had all the card companies on board for a long time and it did not help them.
Anyone else with experience using NFC payments see anything I missed? I would like to see the NFC payments succeed. Apple introducing NFC capability to the iPhone opens another platform for Google Wallet. I hope people start to use these payment services.
Carriers were a problem for starters. Sprint jumped on, but like the other carriers often do, they blocked the deployment of something good for consumers until the carriers could figure out how to profit from it. The carriers had their own service called ISIS, and it was never as good as Google Wallet (and still isn't). It begs the question, how did Apple get around the carrier roadblocks? Owning the platform?
NFC terminals were not widely used. Starting to see them more and more, but not so much because of mobile payment services, but they are coming with chip and pin terminals. Still the NFC capabilities are often turned off or broken. I have started telling all of the places where I see this that they should fix the terminals because millions of iPhone users are coming soon and will want to use the NFC capabilities.
Uninformed users hurt Google Wallet adoption. Let's face it, most consumers really don't care about this. It is still a novelty when I use my phone to pay for something in a store. The clerk always seems to think I am hacking something. Millions of Android users have the ability to use Google Wallet, and just don't.
If Apple solves some of these problems, this will take off. Just having Apple enter this space means more people will be informed, more NFC terminals will work, and carriers will get the hell out of the way.
Here are some things I don't think mattered.
Finger print security while neat, doesn't make the overall system more secure. If my bank card has an NFC chip, and it does, there is no security on that card. Google Wallet is secured with a PIN, and while not the same level of security, its more than the card by itself. Only the transactions run through Apple Pay would have the finger print security, so it does not help the system as a whole.
The credit card companies that come to the table don't matter much either. Discover not on board at launch will not slow Apple Pay. Google has had all the card companies on board for a long time and it did not help them.
Anyone else with experience using NFC payments see anything I missed? I would like to see the NFC payments succeed. Apple introducing NFC capability to the iPhone opens another platform for Google Wallet. I hope people start to use these payment services.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram