It’s just coming very late to the party
Having just run a Guest Post which takes a very apologistic attitude towards Apple’s treatment of the mobile payments world here, it is nice to be able to restore the balance a little. Writing for Helixion’s blog here, Karla Walls declares that “Apple is not the Grim Reaper of NFC”. As Karla point out, with nine out of ten top handset manufacturers are all supporting NFC. If Apple doesn’t decide to RSVP to the NFC party then it’s Apple’s loss, she says. What cellular industry watchers seem to forget is that the retail sector is something like a lumbering giant and it takes a long time for new technologies to get implemented. And NFC not AirDrop is on the list.
Don’t take our word for it. Look at this example which Ms Walls provides …
“Huge retail chains [are] in the mix with their own mobile wallet offerings and payment applications such as McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Coca Cola, Domino’s pizza and most recently Subway joined this growing list, with talks and trials of adding NFC features.”
Other technologies would kill for endorsements by any one of those brands, let alone all six of them.
By allowing branded applications to know a bit about the consumer, Walls says, it allows brands to create relevant offers and promotional discounts specifically tailored to suit you which can be stored on your device.
When adding NFC payment access to such applications, consumers can take advantage of these benefits much quicker by using their smartphones to pay in store.
So how does Helixion fit into the mix? Normally, integrating services and wallets together means that solutions have to be re-engineered for each deployment.
However, Helixion claims its expertise and lok-MPL product streamlines the whole process and better still, is mobile platform agnostic.
The result is (hopefully) new mobile payment products reaching the market more rapidly, smoothly and cost effectively.
So Apple has alternative technologies to NFC. And? These technologies can be more attractive and technically more efficient. But it doesn’t matter.
It’s yet another case of VHS winning out against Betamax. Slowly but surely, we’d argue that NFC will triumph.
We totally agree with Ms Walls on this one .. “It always feels so much cooler swiping a smartphone instead of using a boring chip and pin card.”
Tony is currently Editor of GoMobile News. He's a veteran telecoms journalist who has previously worked for major printed and online titles. Follow him on Twitter @GoMoTweet.
No comments:
Post a Comment