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Japan has a funny relationship with Apple. For example, the Felica ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FeliCa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FeliCa ) based ticket sy
by fidotron 1y ago
Japan has a funny relationship with Apple. For example, the Felica ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FeliCa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FeliCa ) based ticket system is built into every iPhone globally, making life in Japan significantly easier for foreign iOS users. More surprisingly actually using the tickets does not require any app at all - you just use Apple Pay.
This is all narrowing the scope of what advantages native apps have (they do still have advantages), but it's hard to argue they simply aren't moving gatekeeping to other areas.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- delfinom 1y agoFeliCa is simply a patent issue. Apple got some sort of sweetheart deal somewhere. Every Google Pixel has FeliCa its just turned off on non-Japan phones due to said licensing, though people have rooted the phone to turn it on.
- kikkia 1y agoApple having such a dominant hold of market share in the smartphone space gave a lot of leverage when negotiating royalties with Sony who makes the felica stuff. From what I heard it was basically just gifted to them, because if Apple says no we wont support it, then you lose a huge amount of users. Whereas with other manufacturers they pay on a per device basis tracked by the underlying osaifu-keitai stuff. If you are rooted though it is usually just 1 flag or something you need to change. Been using my US Pixel 6 for years daily on my commutes. https://github.com/jjyao88/unlock-felica-pixel https://github.com/jjyao88/unlock-felica-pixel
- Shank 1y agoFeliCa Networks support is the direct result of the fact that mobile transit and mobile payments use in Japan predates the iPhone. Mobile Suica and Osaifu-Keitai already existed, and Apple needed to compete. It started with Japanese SKU iPhones but expanded globally. Even now in Japan, mobile payments are anything but a monopoly. When Apple is forced to compete, they do things like add Suica with Express Transit. PayPay, a made-in-Japan QR code payments app is more prevalent than credit card payments here.
- ezfe 1y agoAndroid phones don't support it globally so saying that Apple is "forced" to compete where Android doesn't proves the point that they're doing more than needed.
- Shank 1y agoJust because you can provision Felica cards outside of Japan doesn't mean that you can actually use them. It's not really global support if you can add Suica in the US and then not use it. More likely is that Felica Networks agreed with this logic and Apple is only paying the license fee for JP devices, or has some side deal about not delineating between regions. If Apple didn't support Felica, it would just move more users in Japan onto physical cards or Android.
- KerrAvon 1y agoOn recent US SKU iPhones — don’t know how recent —- you can add a Suica card directly to Apple Wallet annd use it anywhere the physical card is accepted. No weird regional deals.
- Hilift 1y agoJapan has higher iOS market share (64%) than the US (59%) or the UK (47%) or Europe (34%). https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/japan https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/japan