Today marks the launch of Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus – the company’s newest flagship smartphones featuring the Touch ID fingerprint sensors. As usual with new Apple product launches, early adopters lined up outside of electronics stores around the world in order to get their hands on the shiny new mobiles.
On Canada’s west coast, special measures needed to be observed this morning as a line of eager iPhone-wanters queued up and grew beyond the 200 meter mark. According to the CBC, the crowd of more than 600 resulted in the deployment of ten officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, assigned to manage the line and keep the peace.
The two new iPhones mark a major milestone for Apple as they ship with the company’s mobile commerce solution. Apple Pay is a highly private payment solution powered by Touch ID and an NFC antenna, allowing users to make credit card transactions both in-person and online with their phone. Eventually, when the Apple Watch is released in early 2015, the functionality will expand to the wearable too.
Biometric mobile payment solutions are spreading thanks to Apple Pay and members of the FIDO Alliance, a consortium dedicated to wiping passwords from the face of the Internet in favor of universal strong online authentication. Just this week, FIDO announced that Alipay, a mobile wallet that boast over 100 million users, will be implementing a solution that will allow Samsung Galaxy S5 users to pay with the Synaptics fingerprint sensor on the smartphone.
A week prior to the Galaxy S5 Alipay announcement, news was released stating that the mobile wallet will also be a key feature on the new Ascend Mate 7 smartphone from Huawei.
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