Mobile payments with NFC chip enabled smartphones has been in the discussion of everyone in the tech industry for a long time.
Between the two major players in the smartphone arena, Android beat Apple to include an NFC chip in their mobile phones.
But it did not get much traction from the tech industry and with limited support from relevant parties like banks, and merchants, things didn't look like they made a breakthrough. The not-being-a-breakthrough part was especially true with the systems they implemented were not that user friendly. Therefore the general user did not get the benefit of it.
So recently, when Apple came into the picture with their Apple Pay solution, the world cheered. Ok, it was the tech world that cheered at first. Because Apple made a really good approach in to building the whole system including the experience as usual!
The idea being that it is a seamless experience as with any Apple experience is what it makes so special. Sure you need to own Apple hardware (i.e. an iPhone) and you need to be in their ecosystem (i.e. signed into an iTunes account with credit card details entered), but still what matters is that execution. The whole experience is closely crafted to be a seamless experience by the harmoniously working software and hardware.
This is why even the Microsoft co-founder and former CEO, Bill Gates himself was talking good about it. Of course we need to come up with affordable alternative platforms in order for Mobile Payments to be taken into mass markets, but still that whole experience is what needs to be used as the guidelines.
This is of course achievable, and as Bill Gates explained, Microsoft and others will be implementing such systems in the foreseeable future.
Therefore it seems like we are getting closer to that full smartphone experience that we look forward to in a mobile phone. It shouldn't come across the objective of a task and you, instead it should be a good assistant in getting it done with minimal errors and effortlessly.
Between the two major players in the smartphone arena, Android beat Apple to include an NFC chip in their mobile phones.
But it did not get much traction from the tech industry and with limited support from relevant parties like banks, and merchants, things didn't look like they made a breakthrough. The not-being-a-breakthrough part was especially true with the systems they implemented were not that user friendly. Therefore the general user did not get the benefit of it.
So recently, when Apple came into the picture with their Apple Pay solution, the world cheered. Ok, it was the tech world that cheered at first. Because Apple made a really good approach in to building the whole system including the experience as usual!
The idea being that it is a seamless experience as with any Apple experience is what it makes so special. Sure you need to own Apple hardware (i.e. an iPhone) and you need to be in their ecosystem (i.e. signed into an iTunes account with credit card details entered), but still what matters is that execution. The whole experience is closely crafted to be a seamless experience by the harmoniously working software and hardware.
This is why even the Microsoft co-founder and former CEO, Bill Gates himself was talking good about it. Of course we need to come up with affordable alternative platforms in order for Mobile Payments to be taken into mass markets, but still that whole experience is what needs to be used as the guidelines.
This is of course achievable, and as Bill Gates explained, Microsoft and others will be implementing such systems in the foreseeable future.
Therefore it seems like we are getting closer to that full smartphone experience that we look forward to in a mobile phone. It shouldn't come across the objective of a task and you, instead it should be a good assistant in getting it done with minimal errors and effortlessly.
