Apple je včeraj ob novem iPhonu 6 in novi pametni uri Apple Watch lansiral tudi nov nov način plačilnega prometa prek iPhona, kar naj bi zamenjalo, mhm, “zamudno in tečno plačevanje” s karticami. Tja, ne vidim, v čem je plačevanje s telefonom bolj enostavno od plačevanja s kartico, razen da vnos pin številke ali podpisa zamenja identifikacija s prstnim odtisom na zaslonu. Ker ima vsak od nas precej različnih kartic, bo ta postopek seveda vedno zahteval še izbor ustrezne kartice. Ok, ne bo si treba zapomniti toliko različnih pinov.

Glavni problem bo varnostni, torej ustrezna enkripcija, da ne bi osebnih in kartičnih podatkov, shranjenih na telefonu, nepoklicani od tam pobrali ali jih prestregli med samim izvajanjem transakcije. Problem pri tem bo tudi, kdo bo odgovarjal in nosil stroške morebitnih prevar: posameznik, banka ali mobilni operater? Praktičnih problemov je še kar nekaj, čeprav je, kot pravi Neil Irwin v The Upshotu, nevarno staviti proti Applu glede tehnoloških novotarij. Preberite odličen komentar.

It’s a dangerous business to bet against Apple’s ability to make a product that you didn’t think you needed as part of your daily life. But “Apple Pay” looks as if it may be one of those offerings that doesn’t live up to the company’s hype. It would seem that in Mr. Cook’s mind, the current process of a retail transaction is something actually resembling the series of horrors described above. The core challenge Apple faces is that buying things with a credit card isn’t nearly as onerous a process as they make it out to be.

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Apple Pay does appear to be more secure than plastic credit cards. As Mr. Cook pointed out in the presentation, a credit card reveals all the necessary information for a thief to exploit and go on a shopping spree, whereas Apple Pay requires the purchaser’s fingerprint to run a charge. The only problem from Apple Pay: The costs of fraud are borne by credit card issuers, and sometimes retailers themselves. Just ask Target, and now Home Depot, both of which have faced huge data breaches and are paying the price.

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And whatever the benefits of buying items with a phone offers, consumers will also have to deal with some key disadvantages. Because using Apple Pay requires that you use your fingerprint ID, you can’t do the equivalent of handing your credit card to a friend or family member and have them make a purchase for you. (No sending the intern to pick up coffee with instructions to put it on your card, for example).

And if your phone battery dies or you spill something and your phone goes kaput, you could easily find yourself broke and with no way to get home unless you keep plastic cards in your wallet as a redundancy measure, which is the whole thing Apple says it is trying to make unnecessary to begin with.

Vir: Neil Irwin, The Upshot