Apple: the next 800 pound gorilla in the mobile payment game (1 Viewer)

I linked to a few pieces on this idea in the iPhone speculation thread, but it really deserves it's own. This article by Wired puts all the pieces together and demonstrates the line of thinking on how Apple is going to succeed in this world despite the power collected in the Credit companies hands currently and despite the near universal failure of NFC so far:http://www.wired.com/2014/09/iphone-credit-card/

The ubiquity of an NFC-enabled iPhone, however, finally could force brick-and-mortar stores to offer a pay-by-phone option. And once Apple peels people away from physical credit cards to a digitized version of plastic, Dwolla and everyone else become digital options on the same equal footing in the same wallet.Apple has the ability to succeed where Google and the few NFC-enabled Android phones to hit the market never could, because Apple controls the hardware and the software. Google supported NFC with its own wallet, but few handsets came out with the chips inside, since few payment terminals would take them. And few merchants bothered to accept NFC, since so few phones had it. That uncertainty disappears as soon as an NFC-enabled iPhone 6 floods the streets.And while an iPhone wallet won’t mean an end of credit cards anytime soon—American Express and Visa reportedly have reached agreements to work with Apple—it’s hard to see how its spread wouldn’t hasten a future free of plastic. After all, a credit card is just a medium for transferring data, just like a smartphone. Except unlike a smartphone, a credit card doesn’t do anything else. The credit card companies themselves see this day coming.

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Control the whole stack, right? This leaves them, like they are with the cell companies, with an obvious vestigial problem: The Credit Card companies themselves. Is the tradeoff for the new power the promise that they won't use it to create their own competitor to these incumbents?

My dream is to get rid of the wallet completely.

Have all my information on the phone with the ability to pay via the device.

Also, drivers license, insurance, etc.

I'm not so sure a single point of failure is worth the convenience, and moving to entirely electronic money has severe privacy implications. Both of those are going to be bumpy roads with tons of pioneers getting arrows in their backs before we really get it right. Perfectly willing to let folks like you work the bugs out =0

I'm ready to go all Star TreK TNG with a communicator pinned to my shirt and electronic credits being deposited into my account. Also that "everyone working for the good of all mankind" thing...

Would you have your medical alert bracelet in your phone instead of on your person? What about situations where a person needs medical attention and is unconscious? If it was an accident, the phone might be broken. If it isn't broken, how can the medical staff get the information off of it? Do they have special access to bypass all security, which of course means so does everyone else? For electronic security, the data in the device has to be checked against another database so therefore all checks and transactions can be tracked by 3rd parties. At least with physical cards like driver's licenses and medical cards, the physical card is the proof and they are pretty indestructible under all normal circumstances where someone isn't trying to destroy it. Also, stealing a card or duplicating it to become someone else doesn't give them access to all the private information so they just look like the person, not know the person.

I am amazed at how willing people are to give away their privacy and security for some minor improvement in convenience. I have grown up with computers and technology my whole life but I am really starting to feel like I am Blank Reg from Max Headroom. Maybe it is because of that I can see all the ways technology could be used for nefarious purposes combined with known existing actual examples of that.

I have zero desire to have so much personal stuff (med history, SS# etc etc) and financial stuff attached to my phone. I'm perfectly fine using my wallet as is.

My phone has Soft Card(this last update changed it from Isis Wallet).Not tried it yet as the only place I can use it is inside at Pilot.Speedway, Family Express, CVS...don't use it.

Alf S said:

I have zero desire to have so much personal stuff (med history, SS# etc etc) and financial stuff attached to my phone. I'm perfectly fine using my wallet as is.

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This is why we need smart teeth!