Apple executive Eddy Cue, in charge of the team that developed Apple Pay, recently participated in some holiday shopping with local news station KTLA to demonstrate how the new mobile payments platform works. Cue, alongside tech reporter Rich DeMuro, visited a number of stores in Santa Monica, California, including Panera Bread, Bloomingdale’s and the Disney Store.
The video reiterates how seamless it is to make contactless payments with Apple Pay by simply tapping an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus on an NFC-equipped payment terminal. While some retailers still require a signature depending on the purchase amount, Apple hopes to remove that hurdle and make Apple Pay an even more convenient experience at the over 220,000 stores where it is accepted.
Cue also stressed that Apple Pay is a secure payments platform because of how each transaction has a unique number attached to it, unlike the same credit card number that you carry around in your wallet. The executive walked through how Apple Pay can also be used on the latest iPad Air and iPad mini models for making secure in-app purchases with ease.
The full-length video is embedded below:
Apple Pay launched in the United States last month and, despite some big players like Walmart, CVS and Rite Aid opting to use their own CurrentC payments platform, the service has largely been a hit among consumers. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently claimed that Apple Pay received over 1 million activations just three days after launching, and early usage numbers at McDonald’s and Whole Foods show vast potential for retailers.
Apple Pay will also be compatible with the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s when paired with an Apple Watch.
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We clearly see that the amount isn’t displayed on the phone while paying. I can’t figure why… this seems so important and obvious!
I’m not really seeing why that matters when the POS terminal does? It’d just be a copy of the same thing. If you end up getting charged a different amount, use the receipt to dispute it and get your money back.
I’ve used my phone in the drive thru at McDonalds twice now and since they’re only sticking the reader out the window you can’t really see the total. One of the times they had the wrong order up and I almost paid for someone else’s food. They realized it before the transaction went through and had me try again. I agree if it showed the total it may be better, but I could just get better about seeing the total or asking for it before I stick my phone out.
That shouldn’t be too hard to display a fake amount on the terminal or to put an extra screen in front of it. But even without going through the paranoia way, I’m curious about why it’s not written on the phone : is there a technical reason? a UI reason?
jjcoolstuff,
I’ve used Apple Pay at a McDonald’s drive thru once and I can’t remember if I had any visibility of the amount at the window or not but that’s a good point. One thing Taco Bell has (at least the one’s I’ve been to) which would solve this issue is a screen at the window dedicated to showing you the amount due which you can compare to the amount you were given when you placed your order at the menu.
Greg,
I think you’d be hard-pressed to effectively get away with a fake amount tactic. Checkout attendants usually verbalize the total to the customer so you’d know if what you’re seeing is different from what they’re seeing. I’d also think if a terminal can be hacked to display a fake amount, it could also be hacked to transmit that same fake amount to the device so it wouldn’t matter. Incidents like that probably don’t need to happen many times before the retailer is made aware there is a problem with their system. I also find it hard to imagine a legitimate retailer having a fraudulent extra screen in front of the real screen and nobody noticing.
In any case, if you’re charged a different amount than what you were told you’d be charged (either by the attendant or the terminal), you should know from the receipt or a transaction record and you should be able to get your money back.
All that being said, I guess it doesn’t hurt to have the amount displayed on the device screen. I personally don’t recall any times I felt unaware of the amount I was being charged when making an electronic purchase so it doesn’t seem to make a difference to me. Again, I guess it doesn’t hurt.
Yes, it would be nice and yes, it should be there – but when you think about it, the amount never showed up on your physical credit card after you swiped it. Pretty much the same thing.
There’s a difference between a physical credit card and an iPhone. The credit card does not have a display.