Apple Pay is a revolutionary new payment system from Apple. It allows users to buy products using an iPhone or iPad rather than credit card. This is a product described by Apple as being ‘an entirely new category of service’. And it represents yet another shift for Apple away from the phone and tablet market. This time however they are sticking with technology as it’s their specialty. Apple Pay is a product that could transform the virtual payment industry. This is a sector currently dominated by the likes of PayPal.
The product has been available in the US since September but is yet to launch on the UK market. Many predict it will reach the UK as early as April. The news arrived as Apple became the first US company in history to have a valuation of over $700 billion. This goes some way towards showing the impact and influence the company has had since it released the iPhone back in 2007.
It’s likely the imminent release of Apple Pay will see a mixture of excitement and trepidation in the UK market. You see, as with all these sorts of products there has been all manner of security issues involved.
The concept of Apple Pay is a safe, secure and efficient one-click payment service. It allows Apple users to make their payments at tills by scanning their Apple device on a sensor. It seems likely it will operate in much the same way as contactless card payments. These have already hit the UK market, but they’ve endured their fair share of security problems too.
The problems with Apple Pay seems to be that criminals are setting up new iPhones with stolen details. This allows them to make high-value purchases, chiefly from the Apple store. And through this method they bypass the problem of hacking encryption codes. Indeed, it seems banks have been caught off-guard by the volume of fraud they’ve encountered. Apple’s claims they’ve made security a priority. Yet, it’s estimated that losses run into the millions already.
It’s possible Apple may have fixed the problems by the time the product hits the UK market. But if not it remains to be seen how successful the venture will be. There’s every chance that mobile app developers will develop an app payment system for the UK with fewer security issues than Apple Pay. If this happens, the UK public will most likely take to this app system more than risk the use of Apple Pay.
One of the major drawbacks of Apple Pay is there’s no spending cap. This makes it easier to commit fraud. In the UK, contactless card payments allow a purchase limit of £20. This means if you lose your card someone can’t go on a contactless spending spree. Until Apple introduces the same for Apple Pay, they’re going to have all sorts of problems.
It looks likely that Apple Pay will arrive around the same time as the Apple Watch, another device that syncs with it. Just how much success Apple Pay enjoys outside the US will depend upon their ability to iron out security problems.
