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IMHO the main reason that mobile payments have been slow on the uptake is the user experience sucks. On some of the newer terminals its close to 10 screens you

IMHO the main reason that mobile payments have been slow on the uptake is the user experience sucks. On some of the newer terminals its close to 10 screens you have to work through to complete the transaction. The experience just needs to be 1) Present your device to the terminal 2) Authorize transaction using said device. If your process has anymore steps you are doing it wrong.

veidr 12y ago
Almost completely agree, except I think maybe you have one step too many. Mobile payments have been in common use in Japan for years, and there is only one step: present your device. Beep! ("Boom!") you're done. This works at virtually any convenience store, taxi, train gate, and also at many vending machines (mostly those in train stations). I think the reason Japan got this so many years ahead of USA etc is that it predates smartphones -- it originally started with (prepaid/pre-charged) cards, which have no screen or UI beyond putting them in a machine to add funds. Probably the reason behind that was overwhelming use of mass transit; trains and buses provided the compelling consumer use case (not having to go to a machine, and potentially wait in line, to buy a cheap ticket), and were initially the only place the cards worked. They just expanded after that and then makin smartphones do that same job was a no brainer. Sad caveat: the iPhone (which is my main phone) is the only phone anybody here that I know uses that can't do this. EDIT: This is not to say that Japan is a utopian vision of mobile payments, though; there were several competing systems before universal compatibility was achieved, and you still can't buy everything with your smart(card|phone)... but they work for upwards of 90% of day-to-day shopping.
- spiralpolitik 12y ago
  Good points. I would expect there to be some circumstances that wouldn't require the authorization step as they would have been preauthorized (small transactions). Train gates and buses for example should only require presenting the phone to the terminal to authenticate the ticket or pass you previous purchased. The iPhone already has all the pieces (Apple Pay, NFC, and Passbook) in play to do this and I'm sure Apple is already talking to the players in this area to fit them together.

veidr 12y ago

Almost completely agree, except I think maybe you have one step too many. Mobile payments have been in common use in Japan for years, and there is only one step: present your device. Beep! ("Boom!") you're done. This works at virtually any convenience store, taxi, train gate, and also at many vending machines (mostly those in train stations). I think the reason Japan got this so many years ahead of USA etc is that it predates smartphones -- it originally started with (prepaid/pre-charged) cards, which have no screen or UI beyond putting them in a machine to add funds. Probably the reason behind that was overwhelming use of mass transit; trains and buses provided the compelling consumer use case (not having to go to a machine, and potentially wait in line, to buy a cheap ticket), and were initially the only place the cards worked. They just expanded after that and then makin smartphones do that same job was a no brainer. Sad caveat: the iPhone (which is my main phone) is the only phone anybody here that I know uses that can't do this. EDIT: This is not to say that Japan is a utopian vision of mobile payments, though; there were several competing systems before universal compatibility was achieved, and you still can't buy everything with your smart(card|phone)... but they work for upwards of 90% of day-to-day shopping.

spiralpolitik 12y ago
Good points. I would expect there to be some circumstances that wouldn't require the authorization step as they would have been preauthorized (small transactions). Train gates and buses for example should only require presenting the phone to the terminal to authenticate the ticket or pass you previous purchased. The iPhone already has all the pieces (Apple Pay, NFC, and Passbook) in play to do this and I'm sure Apple is already talking to the players in this area to fit them together.