Ahead of Apple’s entry into the mobile payment space next month with the release of Apple Pay for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users, Apple has joined the GlobalPlatform, the non-profit association focused on standards for secure chip technology across various industries, as a full member.
Existing members of GlobalPlatform include various Apple partners and competitors alike with carriers AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon being members as well as handset makers Samsung and BlackBerry. More importantly, Apple Pay partners American Express, MasterCard, and Visa are also members; Discover, which is not yet an Apple Pay partner but has said it is discussions over participation with Apple, is also a member.
As for GlobalPlatform, the non-profit describes the mission below:
GlobalPlatform’s objective is to create a standardized infrastructure that accelerates the deployment of secure applications and their associated assets, such as data and cryptographic keys, while protecting them from physical or software attacks.
Below you can see the addition of Apple as a full member of the group GlobalPlatform.
Apple Pay will combine NFC, or near field communication, found in the new iPhone 6 models with Touch ID, the iPhone’s secure enclave, and the Passbook app on iOS to enable mobile payments at thousands of retailers and venues using the iPhone in place of physical credit cards.
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users will be able to start using Apple Pay after a free update to iOS 8 next month. The Apple Watch slated for release in early 2015 will enable iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5s users to take advantage of Apple Pay as well. Developers will be able to use an Apple Pay API to enable their users to purchase physical goods using Apple’s mobile payment service.
Update: GlobalPlatform’s Executive Director Kevin Gillick offered the following comment on Apple’s full membership:
This level of membership offers Apple the broadest possible opportunity to participate in our organization. Full members can access GlobalPlatform’s sector specific task force initiatives, as well as all three technical committees – the card, device and systems committees. This enables engagement in the evolution of the full suite of GlobalPlatform Specifications and their associated compliance programs. As with all full members, Apple is free to pursue leadership positions in the organization, through election to a seat on the Board of Directors or the chairmanship of one of the committees or working groups.
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For a standard Credit Card all you have to have is a wallet, but not everyone has an iPhone6. Not sure how Apple pay will gather critical mass to be a common form of payment. It has to be an open standard across mobile platforms.
4 Million 6’s sold on day one, works with Apple Watch which enables 5 total iPhones to use Apple Pay. I’m lazy on the math but how many Millions of phones will this work on by the Spring?
In the UK, 48.3 Million contactless payment cards (credit and debit) have been issued, yet there are only 190,642 terminals that accept contactless payments. In May 23.8m contactless transactions were made, yet the average payment made was only $10.
Apple could sell the same number of 6’s, Visa could give the tokenisation to all the other phone manufacturers – like they did with their PayWave app – but until shops install the tills you might as well be trying to pay with real apples.
The Apple Watch isn’t out yet, and doesn’t even have a confirmed release date, so it is pointless putting that into the equation. 4 million pr-orders is amazing, but Apple Pay is initially available in the US only, by a handful of banks, in a handful of vendors. How many phones it works on is moot – it’s how many places it can work which is the important thing.
Feyip – the thing with average payment being $10 is because for most UK banks, you can only make contactless payments to the value of £15 per transaction in case of fraud.
That’s the point; due to fraud prevention I can pay for my tube trip, lunch, pint, get some shopping, but if I go over £20 ($30, three times the average) per transaction – look at card association site – I still need to do chip and pin. Yes, you can do contactless at Ikea, but can’t transform a room with it. Even been in a bar and had the drinks cost more than I could pay for.
Unlocking your phone to pay for something is another level of security that may make the banks up the limit, and maybe more shops – at the moment I think it’s about 40 in the UK – will adopt it.
Hmm, cut off the end.
The UK numbers show people use contactless payments, but companies still need other methods for more expensive items.
In the States there may be no limit, but companies will still need more than one system as not everyone will have nfc.
I can see Apple getting a cut from other mobile platforms to use their tech.
If Apple sells 80 million iPhones in a few months, it would seem like a lot of potential users to me. I’m willing to bet it adds up to more than all of those Android smartphone users for Google who is always bragging about market share. Honestly, I don’t know what kind of numbers equals critical mass. It’s already been said that although Google Wallet has been out there since 2011, it’s really not being used very much and that’s with what, a billion or so Android smartphones or whatever the percentage comes with an NFC chip and can run the Android OS version needed to securely process payments. Since no open standards across platforms are gathering steam, iPhone users should at least be able to get some use out of mobile payments. It would seem to me that Google and Android is nothing but a boat anchor for mobile payments.
What most people are overlooking is the fact that Apple is not trying to cannibal the mobile payment market (with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus). What they are doing is laying the groundwork for the cannibalization that will occur within 2-3 years with further iteration of iOS devices. This will also give android manufacturers the right idea to COPY and bring a semi-uniform, and secure, mobile payment solution to us as consumers.
NFC is a standard and the token system that Apple is using will probably become standard. It may be dressed up with a different name, but essentially this is what the future of mobile payments will look like across the board.
It’s Visa’s token system.