Bonking for money to be built into the next iPhone Dismantling code allegedly from the next iPhone 9-to-5 Mac has discovered Near Field Communications embedded in the hardware, paving the way for Apple Commerce come 2013. The code comes from two prototype handsets 9-to-5 Mac reckons are knocking around Cuppertino in the hands of trusted developers and engineers. The rumour …
So where is Google wallet in the UK then?
Unless Google get it out here before the iPhone5, Apple will be able to use it as a unique feature, but if Google get there first, we might be saved a year of dreadful adverts promoting the NFC payment.... I hope....
Right now if you want to bonk your phone to pay in the UK you have to stick an NFC sticker on your phone...
"Right now if you want to bonk your phone to pay in the UK you have to stick an NFC sticker on your phone..."
And all you have to do to rob someone is get a NFC reader and something to write to a clone.
At least if someone dips your wallet, you notice the wallet has gone from your pocket. With this, you can be tightly clutching your 'wallet' have it dipped and still not notice.
We will get used hearing things like "sorry, paying via NFC only works if you have an iPhone".
Just the same way as nobody bothers to implement their latest little online advertising doodad for anything else these days, often not even for Android. Yes, that means you are limiting your audience with levity, excluding people from your brand experience because someone was too lazy to do a platform-agnostic implementation. Basically, you're telling people to go fuck themselves because you think they bought the "wrong" phone, even what you are selling is cars, or detergent, or whatever else that is not an Apple product. Probably one of the more stupid things to do when it comes to selling stuff to people – but who am I to judge.
Ever since NFC started appearing in devices, I've been waiting for Apple to release its own similar shinier, better marketed version which is completely incompatible with NFC as we know it.
The technology is underused and not adopted very widely at the moment, Apple could either crush it for its own or give it legs. I hope its the latter.
People used to say that about compact cameras - now there are very few people carrying a camera and a phone. In "the future" you won't need to carry a separate wallet for money and cards because it'll be in your phone. Of course, in this future you will be screwed when your phone is nicked.
Yes but with cameras you don't have a network effect - you build a camera into a phone and it's a camera. If you build a payment device into a phone, it's only useful if 100% (or close) of vendors accept it. Which they won't... so everyone will HAVE TO carry their credit/debit card with them as well.
I'm more interested in using my phone at an ATM I reckon. Do they plan to do this?
My bank have put contactless payment into my debit card already, despite my complete lack of interest. That said, it's actually proven useful quite a few times — a bunch of lunch places around central London take it, and even a few pubs.
But do I want that in my phone? Not really. It doesn't feel like it would add anything that I don't already have, and it'll probably be completely unclear who I'm meant to ring if the thing is lost or stolen and who is responsible for any resulting charges made that amount to theft, and I'll also have the risk of malware.
I guess it's an easier sell in places like the US where they haven't even quite evolved to putting chips in cards and cheques are still routinely used for all manner of transactions.
On the back of this, I just watched the video for Google Wallet... are Americans really that excitable?
its not amazing, its a virtual credit card basically... So instead of pulling out your cc from your wallet, you turn your phone on, unlock it, enter a pin, pay.
Google Wallet will become amazing when people can bonk phones together to transfer money between virtual wallets, that will be the end of cash.
Good point about forgeries, however do you think pay-by-bonk will be any better?
There's money in it, therefore it will be subverted. Wonder what's going to happen once NFC starts becoming popular? As in popular enough to be worth attacking? You can't MITM cash. Or use it to syphon an attached bank balance/e-wallet/whatever.
At least a bit of applied intelligence and a blacklight can catch a forged £20.
1) Different implementations/standards of wallets etc.. and operator buy in. It's internet TV's all over again!
2) Google/Apple/Microsoft putting a lot effort to get US financial institutions onboard, but non-US are out of the loop.
3) Speed (as the AC pointed out earlier). Too much latency in the system. Gets even slower if you put the secure component on a SIM. This results in firing blanks - mistakes - retries - frustration
and there lies the problem. My credit card whether I use the mag stripe, the chip, or the NFC chip works all the time. I can go out for a weekend and long after my phone battery has died I can still pay for a taxi home.
If NFC payments can't replace a card then there's no point, and they can't replace a card.
There is a place for putting other things on your phone but not important stuff like money. Reward cards could go on phones, maybe cinema tickets. I'd worry about having a train ticket on my phone because of the battery issue. A day out in a city could easily drain your phone, plenty of Google maps usage, a few photos, listening to some music as you walk around and then there's no ride home because a dead phone is less useful than a piece of card.
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