Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Bearer cash, alive and well in the sandbox

Apple Wallet (referred to as simply Wallet) is an application in Apple's iOS (previously known as Passbook in iOS 6 to iOS 8) that allows users to store coupons, boarding passes, event tickets, store cards and, starting with iOS 8.1, credit cards, loyalty cards, and debit cards via Apple Pay.
And this report:

Mobile wallet coupons see a higher rate of sharing than loyalty cards at 5.3X versus 3.9X on average. The percent of passes shared varied across brands, with the top-half of retailers seeing 46.4 percent of passes being shared on average, while the bottom-half saw 17.4 percent of passes shared on average. Regardless of the brand, shared mobile wallet passes multiplied the total number of passes installed on consumers’ devices. Furthermore, the data shows that sharing is occurring at a peer-to-peer level rather than sharing facilitated by brands or digital aggregators, as 95 percent of shares were to seven or fewer devices. Every Apple Wallet pass includes a built-in Share link on the back, facilitating easy sharing among family and friends, and it’s a feature consumers are using in droves.
Whatever a 'pass' is, it seems to be shared easily over chat networks. And the is bearer cash, alive and well. 

Tim Cook is the one trying to ban bearer cash.

Tensions between Australia's big banks and the world's biggest technology company Apple have ratcheted up after the iPhone maker surprisingly ordered Westpac to remove a key feature of its recently revamped mobile banking application, which let customers make payments in popular chat applications.In a letter to customers, seen by The Australian Financial Review, Westpac reveals that its Westpac Keyboard function will be removed in July, meaning its innovative plan to enable customers to make payments from within popular apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat and WeChat has been cut off at the knees.The move is a significant blow to the bank, which is attempting to appeal to the next generation of young customers by providing new mobile services, and get banking services ingrained in their digital lives. Despite only being available for three months, the Financial Review understands it had already been installed by tens of thousands of customers.It comes at a time when banks around the world are seeking to secure teens and young adults as customers for the future, amid concerns that banking services could be targeted by technology companies, including Apple, Google and Facebook.

Dunno what Tim is thinking, but Apple Wallets are now banned from the sandbox.


No comments: