Thursday, September 11, 2014

Apple Pay and Wallet versus the Old Credit Card Swipe

Apple's big news day was yesterday. iPhone 6 now and an iWatch finally. I have yet to see anyone wearing any smartwatch. I had seen the Samsung Gear watch a couple of months ago when I was in the local Sam's Club. I studied the packaging and the features listed but I was not interested in wearing a watch on my wrist again. It's been over a decade or two now since I have worn a wrist watch. I don't miss the untanned and white stripe on my left wrist. I have to say that I do like the styling of the watch that Apple has put out. Mostly the screen though and what you can see on it. I'm not too keen on the strap itself or whatever you want to call it. I don't think I'll be wearing an iWatch any time soon as I am a fan of Android. I have seen Android come up from the bottom and take over IOS as being in the majority now even though there were a lot of naysayers along the way, I knew it would only be a matter of time. So, on the subject of wallets. I have installed the Google Wallet and have linked it to my bank account and added in a loyalty card. But, in the information for this wallet it states that there are three phones that it is not compatable with and mine was one of them. I will take it with a grain of salt as I know that sometimes information is not updated. So, I will have to just try it out the next time I am at one of those credit card terminals that have the NFC or near field communication readers at the top. You've seen them I'm sure, kind of a blue looking clear plastic thing at the top of the terminal. Now, be assured that a lot of these have never been used and I won't be surprised if I go to use one that it is not activated and the clerk will know nothing about it. I only have to make sure my NFC is turned on before approaching the register. But, here's my point with all of this. The only thing this technology is going to save me is the space in my old leather wallet. No plastic cards to carry around. But, how much time will it take to get the phone app running and make sure I have the correct card that I want use all set to wave across the NFC reader? Maybe we'll have to get used to getting this all ready before it's our turn at the checkout. From what I have been reading of late is the U.S. will be turning to the chip in a card credit card sometime later next year. All the merchants will have to change or upgrade their terminals to accept the new chip cards. Who knows what is going to work best but the NFC better get going or it might be last to the race and end up the loser. Which do you propose to use?

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