The retail (POS) experience is still inconsistent, frustrating.
Some POS always require a signature, which I don't understand. Some POS allow "swiping" at any time, others fail unless done at just the right time. Some POS are just flakey (please try again, while the line behind you glares).
Apple needs to publish a POS-side Human Interface Guideline (to compliment the iOS side).
They also need to create an exemplar POS for others to copy.
And since we seem stuck with the self-service checkout, Apple needs to fix that experience too. Currently, they're two different UIs bolted together, both terrible.
Yes, everything about it is awkward. Is the timing right? Is the phone in the right place? Does this terminal even work with mobile payments (regardless of whether it appears to be one that _should work)? Does anyone even understand what you are doing if you have difficulty?
It's not hard to see why this is having a difficult time gaining traction. The payoff for the consumer isn't particularly large, even when it works well.
The notable exception might be vending machines. That has worked pretty well on the few occasions that I have tried it, and is much easier than a swipe.
> Apple needs to publish a POS-side Human Interface Guideline (to compliment the iOS side).
I see, you never worked with POS terminal software or vendors. I would already be happy if they got the VISA DCC exchange rate correct, or don't lose transactions, or do brand recognition correctly, or …
The elephant in the room is that from the consumer's POV there is nothing wrong with credit card payments. Often now you can just swipe and sign no signature for small purchases. Try to add contactless or contact or other smart card tech and it screws up wastes peoples time and you become one of the people George Carlin wants to kill.
Merchants have problems but apple pay doesn't solve them, in particular the 6% fraud rate is even worse than the black card. The current model supports high rates for the banks because they eat the fraud. A drastically cheaper system needs to greatly reduce fraud and that ain't easy.
Apple Pay does solve the fraud rate since it only uses a token and does not pass the vendors POS terminal the actual CC number, thus the vendor can't possibly be held accountable for the fraud -- only the bank which approves the fraudulent CC can be held accountable.
Hypothetically it does, but practically it is too easy to bind a card to Apple Pay so that binding a card to Apple Pay is a great way to take advantage of a stolen card.
Also note that the people who are most interested in new and exotic payment systems are the scammers.
The only place I regularly use it is at Whole Foods, where it actually works quite well and is a bit faster than a card. And given the glares one gets in the WF line, I would definitely be informed if it was inconveniencing anyone...
However, this looks to have been the result of concerted corporate effort and training (every clerk knows how it works, etc.). Can't see it catching on in a small business.
Agreed. My sister owns a coffee shop/chocolate shop. There's no advantage for her at all - its all for the customer. And most of her customers are making small purchases, trivial to do with cash or a card.
I wanted to use Apple Pay so bad.. loaded several cards into it, and tried it everywhere I shopped.. Turns out, not a single place I shop at regularly accepted apple pay/nfc.
I know visa/mc/etc are pushing nfc and POSs are required to be updated soon... so maybe next year.
I don't think anyone who has tried Apple Pay is wondering why no one is using it.
Yup. I use it everywhere I can, but it's still a very small percentage of the places I shop. And I live in a major U.S. Metro area, shopping at very normal places. I also run into stuff like Subway keeping the terminal behind the counter, so if I want to pay with Apple Pay I have to ask the employee to slide it over to me. It's a gamble whether they know what I'm talking about or not. It's easier to just give them a credit card.
When I first started using it, I worried about being the guy holding up the line fumbling to get it to work. But after the first few, that went away. As long as the merchant supports it, it usually works pretty seamlessly. There are a few that have stupid quirks, and the cashier can screw it up by pushing the wrong button at the wrong time, but on balance it's surprisingly good for me (when I find a place that accepts it).
I don't think it was ever reasonable to expect this to sweep the nation and replace credit cards in the first year. It's going to take time.
I have been getting the smart cards with contacts from my bank, I think the banks are pushing the contact standard because smart phones don't support contacts and it helps them keep the card racket going.
My understanding is that EMV is a protocol that can work over the wired interface or over NFC. I have a contactless debit card I was issued some time ago that definitely talks to the NFC radio in my Nexus 7
In Manhattan I use Apple Pay all of the time and it is more convenient than using CC. Since it sends to the POS terminal a token instead of your CC number, it is also far more secure. If Apple Pay were around and used at Target and Home Depot those people who would have used it would not have their CC numbers stolen by hackers.
When I tell people the extra protection of Apple Pay, it makes them far more interested in using it. Who wants to be part of the next Target, Home Depot, Neiman Marcus violation of security?
I tend to avoid if possible these places that demand cash payments for less than $10, so in fact these places lose business because I know I'm not the only one.
I've used google wallet for years and basically came to the conclusion, that outside of novelty, it doesn't offer any benefits over a card. And it's often faster to just use my card than to pull my phone out, unlock it, make sure the app opens and the reader/phone do their connection thing.
As a partner in a small business, who uses a service like square, adding mobile payments is something we'd like to do but we aren't buying hardware to support it, it makes no business sense.
I've also used Wallet for a couple of years and for a while I was using it whenever possible. Usually, my phone is quicker to grab than pulling out my wallet and finding the right card, etc. Not by much but slightly easier.
Likewise, it was a minor novelty at first so I enjoyed using it. Just tap, pay, and a receipt scrolls up the screen.
But then a bunch of my normal shops had issues when their POS provider disabled Google/Apple options to push their own. Also, some places where it should work, the terminal was broken and only accepted swipes. Then there's the paper receipt that they still hand you on top of the one you already have in your email. Still have to sign the slip. Basically the benefits of electronic payment end up negated by the continuation of paper receipts and signatures and are again relegated back to novelty status.
I think I mostly stopped using Wallet after a few attempts failed due to faulty POS terminals or changing vendor policies and I had to put the phone away and dig out the card. At that point, I wasn't just using a slightly less convenient method. I was using it after failing to use the slightly more convenient method.
If POS vendors actually had any pressure to properly support Apple/Google payment systems I'd go back to using it in a heartbeat but since they don't directly suffer from poor performance (as if some chain store is really gonna hound the POS company because a segment of their customers was mildly annoyed) there is little pressure for them to improve.
Stores themselves might be pressured because they directly face the public but there's not enough motivation to invest the resources when your customers are Rite Aid, Best Buy, Safeway, and Home Depot. Those companies only care that the POS works most of the time and doesn't cost too much.
In Australia and I pay the majority of transactions with a wave of a card. The last thing I want to do is be fumbling for a phone and having to unlock it, find an app etc. I think mobile payments are a complete waste of time. Practically every modern country you have contactless payments for the small stuff, petrol, coffee, meals and chip and pin for the larger amounts. I don't understand why the idea still persists.
Yeah, once I realized I can pay in many places by just waving a card with a microchip, it really can't get much easier than that. Certainly beats fumbling with a smartphone or even cash.
Like so much "innovation" coming out of the tech community, mobile payments is a solution in search of a problem. Mobile payments are not faster, safer, or more convenient than the existing system.
I understand the potential payoff for a tech company makes the development of such a redundant technology worth the risk; it's still a shty idea.
Apple Pay is faster to use than CC and it confers the additional benefit that since Apple only sends a token to the vendors POS terminal your CC number can't possibly be hacked, unlike the cases of Target, Home Depot, and Neiman Marcus to name a few.
It is faster since you simply hold your iPhone6 (+) over the CC terminal and press your thumb down. This is certainly faster than fishing the CC out of your wallet, swiping it and signing the receipt.
I like Apple Pay. I use it every time I can. I can't stand receipts and signing.
What I think the reporter isn't covering adequately is why many small merchants are cash only. I suspect they are doing this to avoid taxes. These merchants know that once the txn is in a computer, there is easy visibility on their cash flow.
Another problem is that paying with your phone is only more convenient if you have your phone in your hand already. Otherwise, men are probably going to the pockets of their trousers (wallet in one, phone in the other). Women are probably going dig in their purse, which has both their cards (often in a smaller wallet) and their phone. At that point you may as well go for the tried-and-tested, rather than the phone.
If you happen to have earbuds in (so many people, these days) and then moving the phone around is annoying because of the cord.
If the smart watches can do payments then it should be more convenient, provided the actual mechanics of holding or swiping the back of your wrist to the terminal works.
From what i have seen i think the experience is pretty bad.
Apple Pay is (comparatively )unreliable. It could be the terminal, it could be the software, it could be the iPhone or Touch ID. I dont know, but you are 10x more likely getting into problem then waving with your plastic card.
People dont like to risk and be embarrassed.
There is no real incentive to use it. If Apple could have an App and store how i had spent the money with Apple Pay, abit like personal Finance organizer then i would have use it just to keep track of my spending.
It is slow, when i saw the demo it took 3 seconds, ( actually in real life it is likely to be 4+ ) I thought it was really slow. Compare to places like Singapore, Hong Kong, or Japan where you get sub 1 seconds payment using NFC card. ( Although they are not credit card based )
Some POS always require a signature, which I don't understand. Some POS allow "swiping" at any time, others fail unless done at just the right time. Some POS are just flakey (please try again, while the line behind you glares).
Apple needs to publish a POS-side Human Interface Guideline (to compliment the iOS side).
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserEx...
They also need to create an exemplar POS for others to copy.
And since we seem stuck with the self-service checkout, Apple needs to fix that experience too. Currently, they're two different UIs bolted together, both terrible.