<story><title>Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone</title><url>https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/02/apple-unveils-contactless-payments-via-tap-to-pay-on-iphone/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>melling</author><text>The long slow road to contactless payments. Almost 2 decades along in the technology adoption curve.&lt;p&gt;I was ready for this in 2005.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;money.howstuffworks.com&amp;#x2F;personal-finance&amp;#x2F;debt-management&amp;#x2F;blink.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;money.howstuffworks.com&amp;#x2F;personal-finance&amp;#x2F;debt-manage...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;If course as the article points out, it wasn’t even new technology back then:&lt;p&gt;“ Not Exactly New Tech
Mobile introduced the Speedpass in 1997. Speedpass is a small device on a keychain (called a fob) that users wave in front of the Speedpass logo on gas pumps. The cost of the gas is automatically deducted from the user&amp;#x27;s Speedpass account”</text></item><item><author>sabjut</author><text>Clarification due to a somewhat confusing title:&lt;p&gt;This is about the merchant using an iPhone to accept credit cards and other Tap to Pay devices.&lt;p&gt;The customer was able to pay with Tap to Pay with their iPhone for a while now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>baxtr</author><text>I worked in the mobile industry back in 2010s. Every carrier had big shiny projects called &amp;quot;mobile payments&amp;quot; going on. They were exploring, together with banking partners how they could revolutionize contactless payments.&lt;p&gt;A key factor why all these project failed wasn&amp;#x27;t the technology. As you rightly point out, the technology was already available back then. It was mainly the vast differences in business models in the two industries: telcos and banking. The telcos were spoiled back then and expected any service to deliver a margin of at least 30%. Banks operated on a very different operating margin for the transactions. They never got that reconciled.&lt;p&gt;I remember back when Apple introduced Apple Pay many people were stunned by how little they charged. But in the end, that was their key insight to make this work. Quite impressive from a company with very high margins on their core products.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone</title><url>https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/02/apple-unveils-contactless-payments-via-tap-to-pay-on-iphone/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>melling</author><text>The long slow road to contactless payments. Almost 2 decades along in the technology adoption curve.&lt;p&gt;I was ready for this in 2005.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;money.howstuffworks.com&amp;#x2F;personal-finance&amp;#x2F;debt-management&amp;#x2F;blink.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;money.howstuffworks.com&amp;#x2F;personal-finance&amp;#x2F;debt-manage...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;If course as the article points out, it wasn’t even new technology back then:&lt;p&gt;“ Not Exactly New Tech
Mobile introduced the Speedpass in 1997. Speedpass is a small device on a keychain (called a fob) that users wave in front of the Speedpass logo on gas pumps. The cost of the gas is automatically deducted from the user&amp;#x27;s Speedpass account”</text></item><item><author>sabjut</author><text>Clarification due to a somewhat confusing title:&lt;p&gt;This is about the merchant using an iPhone to accept credit cards and other Tap to Pay devices.&lt;p&gt;The customer was able to pay with Tap to Pay with their iPhone for a while now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>profmonocle</author><text>Something I was thinking about the other day is how some modern credit cards technically have four different ways to pay. Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible, though I haven&amp;#x27;t seen a merchant actually do this since maybe the mid-2000&amp;#x27;s. Then you have magstripe, chip, and RFID all in the same card.&lt;p&gt;Pretty impressive backwards compatibility, although I think the original copy-to-paper mechanism is &lt;i&gt;finally&lt;/i&gt; being phased out, since some new credit cards no longer have raised digits. (My new Visa from Chase has the digits on the back, and they&amp;#x27;re only slightly embossed and not in the same place. Probably wouldn&amp;#x27;t work with the old swipers.)&lt;p&gt;I wonder how long until magstripe is phased out?</text></comment>