In this article
- What is Apple Pay?
- Availability in Italy
- Critical aspects
Apple has just presented its new iPhone model, which is the sixth generation of the mobile phone, which brings with it an important novelty that could potentially change our purchasing habits, Apple Pay.
If we think about it, the credit card is a useful tool, but a bit old and not too secure, as it is subject to cloning and theft.
There are many experiments underway to change the habit of extracting the card from one’s wallet to complete purchases and there are already some established companies such as Paypal or Wallet and many insurance sites that keep the information of our accounts to complete payments.
The sites that store our data, however, certainly do not guarantee peace of mind, also because they are often a target for hackers and criminals. Instead, the other systems have not yet reached a simple and easy way to assert themselves.
It is therefore clear that the banking market is not confronting itself to find a solution that, in my opinion, should also try to lower for the benefit of all the transaction costs that are often high for cards.
What is Apple Pay?
Apple Pay is a digital wallet where you can store your credit card details to be used for online payments on specific apps and in participating stores.
The system is based on NFC technology, i.e. on the possibility of making mobile devices communicate with each other over a short distance (ie telephone/watch and cash reader) and on the fingerprint reader present on the new generation of iPhones.
Apple Pay also warrants that it will not store credit card and transaction data in respect of privacy and security.
To start using Apple Pay just take a picture of your credit card and go to an enabled shop where you can use your mobile phone by simply bringing it to the cash desk by pressing your finger on the button on your phone.
Critical aspects
While Apple Pay initially met with acclaim and positive reviews, now criticisms of the system are also emerging. Surely the same is in a test phase and can therefore be improved and will spread slowly along with the sale of new iPhone 12 devices. Here are some critical issues.
1. Online payment – If payment in stores is currently possible in large American chains and the stores participating in the initiative, online it is only possible through the Apps designed specifically to accept such payments, while it is not possible on the websites of individual companies. 2. Security – the distrust of new systems, especially when it comes to online payments, is high and the recent problems recorded by Apple’s cloud do not speak in favor of Apple Pay, which however appears with a very robust security system.
3. Utility – It is not, in my opinion, very clear why paying with a mobile phone in a physical store is better than taking the card out of the wallet, especially in a country like U.S, where electronic and credit card payments are less frequent. than abroad.
4. Competitor – that of payments is certainly a different field from the one in which Apple is used to competing. It will therefore be interesting to see what the other operators concerned will do, including telephone operators, the banking system, and other subjects already active. It is also true that Apple has accustomed us to unhinging paradigms and undermining operators who are already leaders in the sectors in which it has entered to operate.
In conclusion, we keep Apple Pay under control pending the landing, in the belief that immediate success is essential because in new technologies it often happens that, if the adoption is not immediate, they are immediately abandoned.