If you own a fish store you might think about looking at your point of sale software. According to Apple, the company sold 4MM pre orders of their new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus which is their larger 5.5” smartphone version.
With the iPhone 6—Apple announced their new contactless payment system called Apple Pay, which allows users of iPhones to scan their credit cards and use their fingerprint to authorize a transaction.
Apple Pay will rely on chips, implanted in the latest iPhones and new Apple Watches, that will be capable of sending signals a short distance through the air, using a technology called Near Field Communication, or NFC. This all happens all in a matter of seconds and is highly secure. Apple is betting their cachet of 800MM+ users who have active credit cards on file will be a blockbuster to stores worldwide.
However, in order to take advantage of the new technology fish stores will need proper equipment to handle the NFC connections. One of the largest manufactures of POS credit card terminals is VeriFone Systems, which has supplied new terminals to Panera Bread and Target to support NFC payments. Their MX 915 and MX 925 systems are very good sellers and support the new EMV requirement that is hitting retail very soon.
For the record Google has their Google Wallet solution for some time now, but unlike Apple Google will scan your purchases and requires you use a “Google card”. Google choose to become the card issuer and not allow customers to scan their own cards like Apple Pay does. Even more importantly, Google can see your transactions with the intention of scanning them to learn what your buying and hopefully target ads to you.
More users are expected to adopt Apple pay with the massive marketing muscle Apple has and huge base of users expected to upgrade to the latest and greatest iPhone 6. Rich Mogull writing for Macworld said it best:
But aside from the technical differences, Apple is in a unique position due to its business model. It doesn’t want or need to track transactions. It doesn’t want or need to be the payment processor. It isn’t restricted by carrier agreements, since it fully controls the hardware. Google, although first to the market by a matter of years, is still hamstrung by device manufacturers and carriers. Softcard is hamstrung by the usual greed and idiocy of mobile phone providers. PayPal has no footprint on devices.
This is a long-term investment by Apple, and possibly one of the most important since it first built the iTunes Store. Apple is putting its muscle behind improving the user experience of making payments, and using that to sell more devices. It won’t make much directly from Apple Pay now. But as more people use supported devices and push more merchants to support the user experience, odds are that those small per-transaction fees will grow into a significant source of revenue.
In any case it’s wise for fish stores to be prepared for customers asking if they can pay with Apple Pay.
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