Apple should have launched its Apple Pay service in Canada, says Ben Myers in an article on Techvibes. In the piece, which originally appeared on the Dx3 Digest, the communications and web analytics expert makes the compelling case that Canada already has the infrastructure in place to allow for speedy mass-adoption of Apple’s mobile payment system.
Myers credits this state of affairs to Interac, Canada’s not-for-profit commerce industry standards body, which had set a deadline back in 2012 for commercial merchants to adopt the chip-and-PIN card terminals that go hand-in-hand with NFC (touchless) payment technology – if the retailers didn’t install the technology by that deadline, liability for fraudulent payments would fall to them. The deadline in the US, by contrast, is slated for next year.
Moreover, while Apple was able to get major companies like McDonalds and Walgreens to agree to install the required technology at their POS terminals, other major retailers like Wal Mart and Best Buy have eschewed the scheme, instead choosing to gamble on an online payment app called CurrenC, which can work without NFC terminals. Meanwhile, Canadian consumers are already enjoying the benefits of a standardized NFC payment system, and are thus primed for services that take that concept and advance it, as Apple Pay is poised to do with its Touch ID biometric security integration.
Without having acclimatized to the infrastructure that Canadians have enjoyed, will American consumers be ready to take the plunge into mobile commerce when Apple Pay is launched – even with its fingerprint-scanning security? Nobody’s sure, but Ben Myers seems pretty sure that the service will find a welcoming home in Canada. Read his full article here.
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