As you say, 10's of thousands won't get it, but tens of millions will. As for extra apps, right now, they are needed for much of this, but it's very possible that, in the future, they won't be.
I understand that for something like Starbucks, where you actually pay for the product, in Passbook, you need an app in order to easily link to their site to put a payment into the app for Passbook. I've already used this, and it works very well.
But just remember that this is the first iteration of the system. It's very possible that Apple is working on something more transparent. The talk about Apple using your iTunes account makes sense, as it's linked to a credit card already, and there are over 450 million people with active iTunes accounts.
This makes much more sense than NFC. Even Samsung doesn't think that NFC is a good solution.
What I would like to know is what purchases made through Passbook will cost the merchant. The CC co's charge a hefty 2 - 3%, and I would love to bypass them altogether. Does anybody know how the financial transactions work behind Passbook? And what are the costs and to whom?
All I'm going to say (and I know I've said it before, sorry), is that I just don't "get" Passbook at all. I'm a smarter than average person and I work in tech and while I have read the explanations and do know how it's supposed to work more or less, I still don't "get it" in a visceral way. If I don't "get it" (to the point of actually being able to effectively use it in my daily life), then tens of thousands of others don't either.
Perhaps you are smarter than the average user, and perhaps you're not. In either case, perhaps you'll get it in a visceral way if you actually take a moment to use Passbook. I've done so for boarding passes with two different airlines, for a baseball game, and for my occasional purchases at Starbucks. It is simple, straight-forward, and works just as advertised. I haven't experienced any glitches. My guess is this will become one of the most widely used new elements of iOS 6.
For her birthday, my fourteen year old daughter wants to go to see the Dylan concert this weekend. Bought the tickets online ... LiveNation or whatever. They charge you an extra premium ($2.50) on top of all the other crazy fees for the privilege of printing the tickets out at home on a letter sized piece of paper that is mostly ads that they have sold to local restaurants, etc. I would have loved to have been able to use Passbook for this. But I wonder, this company is using the convenience of printing tickets as a profit center - first with the add-on fee and second with the ad space. Will they be motivated to offer Passbook ticketing if they stand to lose these revenues? Not bloody likely, and that would be a shame.
What I would like to know is what purchases made through Passbook will cost the merchant. The CC co's charge a hefty 2 - 3%, and I would love to bypass them altogether. Does anybody know how the financial transactions work behind Passbook? And what are the costs and to whom?
Right now, there is little that you can directly buy with Passport. Only Starbucks does that as far as I know. We can use out Apple app to buy at Apple's stores, but for some reason, that doesn't use Passbook. Odd!
Starbucks requires you to put money into the app through their web site, which the app links to, one reason you need the app. That money is taken from your credit card. I believe this works like a gift card. You pay for the card up front, and the credit card company takes their fee, and then it's spent over time, or all at once.
I don't consider 2-3% as a hefty charge. My company accepted all credit cards, as we had to. AMEx is the most expensive, which is why some merchants don't allow it. Transaction processing is expensive. It doesn't come out of thin air. People have to pay for convenience. Believe me, that small transaction charge is figured into pricing. Don't believe anything else you may be told.
Merchants and credit card companies lose money on the smallest purchases made on a card, as the transaction costs exceed the tiny fee. It's made up by the large dollar amounts on large purchases.
My question would be, if Samsung develops a Passbook-like feature, will people trust Samsung with their credit card numbers?
I imagine there will be people who would. Why not? People trust a lot of vendors with their credit cards. If a lot of people are buying their phones, I don't see why they wouldn't trust them with their credit cards. While I do t like what Samsung is doing in regard to Apple, I do have several of their products. I'm not going to maintain a jaundiced view of them in all areas.
But Samsung doesn't have the ecosystem that Apple does, and it takes years to built one up.
For her birthday, my fourteen year old daughter wants to go to see the Dylan concert this weekend. Bought the tickets online ... LiveNation or whatever. They charge you an extra premium ($2.50) on top of all the other crazy fees for the privilege of printing the tickets out at home on a letter sized piece of paper that is mostly ads that they have sold to local restaurants, etc. I would have loved to have been able to use Passbook for this. But I wonder, this company is using the convenience of printing tickets as a profit center - first with the add-on fee and second with the ad space. Will they be motivated to offer Passbook ticketing if they stand to lose these revenues? Not bloody likely, and that would be a shame.
They are going to have to compete with the other major ticketing companies who are now using Passbook. But so far, those ticketing companies aren't allowing the purchase of tickets through Passbook. That could come in the future.
Right now, there is little that you can directly buy with Passport. Only Starbucks does that as far as I know. We can use out Apple app to buy at Apple's stores, but for some reason, that doesn't use Passbook. Odd!
Starbucks requires you to put money into the app through their web site, which the app links to, one reason you need the app. That money is taken from your credit card. I believe this works like a gift card. You pay for the card up front, and the credit card company takes their fee, and then it's spent over time, or all at once.
I don't consider 2-3% as a hefty charge. My company accepted all credit cards, as we had to. AMEx is the most expensive, which is why some merchants don't allow it. Transaction processing is expensive. It doesn't come out of thin air. People have to pay for convenience. Believe me, that small transaction charge is figured into pricing. Don't believe anything else you may be told.
Merchants and credit card companies lose money on the smallest purchases made on a card, as the transaction costs exceed the tiny fee. It's made up by the large dollar amounts on large purchases.
This was my point earlier. While I like Passbook, it seems that Square Wallet and Passbook Here will become more utilized. I hope that Apple incorporates "Pay with iTunes" or something similar. At that point, no physical card will be needed, nor will NFC be needed.
GPS will alert our phones and then we can pay via iTunes (i hope) or Square or Paypal.
Right now, there is little that you can directly buy with Passport. Only Starbucks does that as far as I know. We can use out Apple app to buy at Apple's stores, but for some reason, that doesn't use Passbook. Odd!
Starbucks requires you to put money into the app through their web site, which the app links to, one reason you need the app. That money is taken from your credit card. I believe this works like a gift card. You pay for the card up front, and the credit card company takes their fee, and then it's spent over time, or all at once.
I don't consider 2-3% as a hefty charge. My company accepted all credit cards, as we had to. AMEx is the most expensive, which is why some merchants don't allow it. Transaction processing is expensive. It doesn't come out of thin air. People have to pay for convenience. Believe me, that small transaction charge is figured into pricing. Don't believe anything else you may be told.
Merchants and credit card companies lose money on the smallest purchases made on a card, as the transaction costs exceed the tiny fee. It's made up by the large dollar amounts on large purchases.
I am not sure about that. Most grocery stores accept card and those are often small purchases. I can't see the cc companies loosing here. Merchants pass it on to their clients. I am no expert, I just begrudgingly pay my fees. I sell higher ticket items and I don't really see how a $2000.- item is any more expensive to process than a $200.- transaction. Debit card fees are a fraction of CC fees, remember.
I wonder wether somebody finds a hack to enable forwarding and still keeping a copy in your own phone or more so, how apple is going to protect against this kind of thing.
I'm sure there's a bar code that gets scanned when you enter a facility (same as when you download and print your own tickets). Once scanned, no one else gets admission with the same bar code.
I haven't tried the app yet and some people seem to have UI concerns, but the general idea is a good one, especially if you attend events (or fly) often. I hate having to print out tickets/boarding passes, etc. If they're just downloaded to the iPhone, that's a big advantage, IMO, especially if you're on the road and don't have access to a printer. As long as it's a non-frustrating UI, having all my boarding passes and event tickets in one place is a great idea. If there isn't already, there should be a linkage to the calendar so that clicking on a calendar event automatically brings up the tickets/passes for that event. And buying a ticket should automatically (or give an option to) put that event in the calendar.
All I'm going to say (and I know I've said it before, sorry), is that I just don't "get" Passbook at all. I'm a smarter than average person and I work in tech and while I have read the explanations and do know how it's supposed to work more or less, I still don't "get it" in a visceral way. If I don't "get it" (to the point of actually being able to effectively use it in my daily life), then tens of thousands of others don't either.
- It's counter-intuitive to have an app that is useless until linked with another app, that you have to find first, install, and then link.
- It's just plain stupid to expect me to waste screens of real-estate to install apps just so they will show up in the passbook app.
- Even if I did this, it's not clear at all what happens next or how to "link" the two since the "linking" is invisible and behind the scenes.
- The kind of fools who salivate over a ten cent bargain are not generally the same people who buy expensive high-end smart phones.
Not everyone is comfortable with hundreds of apps on their phone. Many people, like me, only install a few things that they actually need/want. I'm not going to install an app for every bargain bin in my neighbourhood just so I *might* get a crappy coupon one day.
Until the day that some actual human in an actual store offers me a coupon that can be saved on my iPhone and actually tells me how to do it or does it for me, Passbook just isn't going to happen for me. I suspect that the vast majority of iPhone users are in the same boat.
It's just one of those useless new apps that sits on your device that you know *might* be useful someday but for the time being is just taking up space. So you put it in that folder that everyone has on the last screen that contains all the apps that Apple's marketing department forces on us, that you can't get rid of but that don't actually do anything.
the fact that you work in tech is probably why you don't get it
Acutally, merchants will see a cost savings, credit card companies will take a hit on transaction fees collected from point of sales transactions.
In the case of Starbucks, because people 'load' their Starbacks Card less frequently then visiting to store (i.e. loading $50 on the Starbucks Card vs using your credit card in store accumilating $50 in charges over time). Because Starbucks pays a transaction fee everytime a credit card is used, Starbucks will absolutely see a cost reduction.
For example, if I go into a Starbuck and use my credit card to purchase a $3 coffee M-F, that's 5 transactions which translates to 5 transaction fees Starbucks has to pay to credit card companies, where as if I load my Starbucks Card once for $15 dollars, Starbucks only has to pay one transaction fee. Starbuck absolutely love this, hence why tthey attached a 'rewards program' to their Starbucks card.
As this method of payment becomes more common, you can expect credit compaines (i.e. banks) to increase fee to recoup lost revenue from transaction fees.
Also, a law was recently passed allow merchants to charge more for credit card transactions vs using cash/check/debit card similar to gas stations. I can see some merchants using this to encourage customers
They need an option of buying the e-ticket online, then sending me an email with a link that will open the ticket in Passbook. That would be the best solution, rather than having all these other apps to manage alongside Passbook.
What I would like to know is what purchases made through Passbook will cost the merchant. The CC co's charge a hefty 2 - 3%, and I would love to bypass them altogether. Does anybody know how the financial transactions work behind Passbook? And what are the costs and to whom?
Agree, but remember the option to "add to passbook" will be available via web, email, text, etc. So I don't think the app will need to be installed on your phone for that. I think.
That is 100% correct. I put the tickets to the Giants game I went to into Passbook by going to my SF Giants tickets page in Safari and clicking the "Add To Passbook" link. There was no extra app to be installed.
I wonder wether somebody finds a hack to enable forwarding and still keeping a copy in your own phone or more so, how apple is going to protect against this kind of thing.
Effectively the first person to use the ticket blocks it from the system. If I forwarded my MLB ticket to someone else, then I went into the ballpark ahead of them, they would be refused entry.
It's no different to photocopying your "print at home" tickets. The barcodes are unique and can only be used once.
All I'm going to say (and I know I've said it before, sorry), is that I just don't "get" Passbook at all. I'm a smarter than average person and I work in tech and while I have read the explanations and do know how it's supposed to work more or less, I still don't "get it" in a visceral way. If I don't "get it" (to the point of actually being able to effectively use it in my daily life), then tens of thousands of others don't either.
- It's counter-intuitive to have an app that is useless until linked with another app, that you have to find first, install, and then link.
- It's just plain stupid to expect me to waste screens of real-estate to install apps just so they will show up in the passbook app.
- Even if I did this, it's not clear at all what happens next or how to "link" the two since the "linking" is invisible and behind the scenes.
- The kind of fools who salivate over a ten cent bargain are not generally the same people who buy expensive high-end smart phones.
Not everyone is comfortable with hundreds of apps on their phone. Many people, like me, only install a few things that they actually need/want. I'm not going to install an app for every bargain bin in my neighbourhood just so I *might* get a crappy coupon one day.
Until the day that some actual human in an actual store offers me a coupon that can be saved on my iPhone and actually tells me how to do it or does it for me, Passbook just isn't going to happen for me. I suspect that the vast majority of iPhone users are in the same boat.
It's just one of those useless new apps that sits on your device that you know *might* be useful someday but for the time being is just taking up space. So you put it in that folder that everyone has on the last screen that contains all the apps that Apple's marketing department forces on us, that you can't get rid of but that don't actually do anything.
Gazoobee, I think your looking at it all wrong. Obviously the goal for Apple is to get as many people using passbook as possible but not everyone will. For you it may be pointless but how about the people that even prior to passbook used to buy e tickets and make e purchases with all those apps and now have a app to keep it all tidy and in a central location. It may not be for everybody, probably not something I'd ever use, but it's not a bad option for many others. It's a good, safer alternative to having NFC. Can't knock them for that unless you think the iPhone is lacking because it has no NFC which for me would be useless as I'd never use it.
As you see I do get what your saying as I never used the stock app or even itunes . I don't really ever download music but you can't expect everything in iOS to cater just to yourself. What I can say is be grateful Apple has the power to not let Carriers customize your iPhone Specifically to their taste. You may have some useless apps that take up space but they aren't comparable to the other phones bloatware.
Used passbook for the first time this morning at starbucks. Was actually surprised I saw utility in it; I would imagine it will help limit the number of useless apps that you currently need. With the GPS fencing, it makes for some pretty cool options. With Starbucks, it did everything I used the app for previously (although I can't play with the stars in the cup anymore).
I do wish it was set up with more of a one-time pad though, rather than a fixed barcode. Not sure if that is Starbucks fault or Apple.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
As you say, 10's of thousands won't get it, but tens of millions will. As for extra apps, right now, they are needed for much of this, but it's very possible that, in the future, they won't be.
I understand that for something like Starbucks, where you actually pay for the product, in Passbook, you need an app in order to easily link to their site to put a payment into the app for Passbook. I've already used this, and it works very well.
But just remember that this is the first iteration of the system. It's very possible that Apple is working on something more transparent. The talk about Apple using your iTunes account makes sense, as it's linked to a credit card already, and there are over 450 million people with active iTunes accounts.
This makes much more sense than NFC. Even Samsung doesn't think that NFC is a good solution.
What I would like to know is what purchases made through Passbook will cost the merchant. The CC co's charge a hefty 2 - 3%, and I would love to bypass them altogether. Does anybody know how the financial transactions work behind Passbook? And what are the costs and to whom?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
All I'm going to say (and I know I've said it before, sorry), is that I just don't "get" Passbook at all. I'm a smarter than average person and I work in tech and while I have read the explanations and do know how it's supposed to work more or less, I still don't "get it" in a visceral way. If I don't "get it" (to the point of actually being able to effectively use it in my daily life), then tens of thousands of others don't either.
Perhaps you are smarter than the average user, and perhaps you're not. In either case, perhaps you'll get it in a visceral way if you actually take a moment to use Passbook. I've done so for boarding passes with two different airlines, for a baseball game, and for my occasional purchases at Starbucks. It is simple, straight-forward, and works just as advertised. I haven't experienced any glitches. My guess is this will become one of the most widely used new elements of iOS 6.
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
This makes much more sense than NFC. Even Samsung doesn't think that NFC is a good solution.
My question would be, if Samsung develops a Passbook-like feature, will people trust Samsung with their credit card numbers?
For her birthday, my fourteen year old daughter wants to go to see the Dylan concert this weekend. Bought the tickets online ... LiveNation or whatever. They charge you an extra premium ($2.50) on top of all the other crazy fees for the privilege of printing the tickets out at home on a letter sized piece of paper that is mostly ads that they have sold to local restaurants, etc. I would have loved to have been able to use Passbook for this. But I wonder, this company is using the convenience of printing tickets as a profit center - first with the add-on fee and second with the ad space. Will they be motivated to offer Passbook ticketing if they stand to lose these revenues? Not bloody likely, and that would be a shame.
Right now, there is little that you can directly buy with Passport. Only Starbucks does that as far as I know. We can use out Apple app to buy at Apple's stores, but for some reason, that doesn't use Passbook. Odd!
Starbucks requires you to put money into the app through their web site, which the app links to, one reason you need the app. That money is taken from your credit card. I believe this works like a gift card. You pay for the card up front, and the credit card company takes their fee, and then it's spent over time, or all at once.
I don't consider 2-3% as a hefty charge. My company accepted all credit cards, as we had to. AMEx is the most expensive, which is why some merchants don't allow it. Transaction processing is expensive. It doesn't come out of thin air. People have to pay for convenience. Believe me, that small transaction charge is figured into pricing. Don't believe anything else you may be told.
Merchants and credit card companies lose money on the smallest purchases made on a card, as the transaction costs exceed the tiny fee. It's made up by the large dollar amounts on large purchases.
I imagine there will be people who would. Why not? People trust a lot of vendors with their credit cards. If a lot of people are buying their phones, I don't see why they wouldn't trust them with their credit cards. While I do t like what Samsung is doing in regard to Apple, I do have several of their products. I'm not going to maintain a jaundiced view of them in all areas.
But Samsung doesn't have the ecosystem that Apple does, and it takes years to built one up.
They are going to have to compete with the other major ticketing companies who are now using Passbook. But so far, those ticketing companies aren't allowing the purchase of tickets through Passbook. That could come in the future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
Quote:
Originally Posted by quinney
My question would be, if Samsung develops a Passbook-like feature, will people trust Samsung with their credit card numbers?
I imagine there will be people who would. Why not? .....
Uhhhhhhhhh.... nevermind
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
Right now, there is little that you can directly buy with Passport. Only Starbucks does that as far as I know. We can use out Apple app to buy at Apple's stores, but for some reason, that doesn't use Passbook. Odd!
Starbucks requires you to put money into the app through their web site, which the app links to, one reason you need the app. That money is taken from your credit card. I believe this works like a gift card. You pay for the card up front, and the credit card company takes their fee, and then it's spent over time, or all at once.
I don't consider 2-3% as a hefty charge. My company accepted all credit cards, as we had to. AMEx is the most expensive, which is why some merchants don't allow it. Transaction processing is expensive. It doesn't come out of thin air. People have to pay for convenience. Believe me, that small transaction charge is figured into pricing. Don't believe anything else you may be told.
Merchants and credit card companies lose money on the smallest purchases made on a card, as the transaction costs exceed the tiny fee. It's made up by the large dollar amounts on large purchases.
This was my point earlier. While I like Passbook, it seems that Square Wallet and Passbook Here will become more utilized. I hope that Apple incorporates "Pay with iTunes" or something similar. At that point, no physical card will be needed, nor will NFC be needed.
GPS will alert our phones and then we can pay via iTunes (i hope) or Square or Paypal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
Right now, there is little that you can directly buy with Passport. Only Starbucks does that as far as I know. We can use out Apple app to buy at Apple's stores, but for some reason, that doesn't use Passbook. Odd!
Starbucks requires you to put money into the app through their web site, which the app links to, one reason you need the app. That money is taken from your credit card. I believe this works like a gift card. You pay for the card up front, and the credit card company takes their fee, and then it's spent over time, or all at once.
I don't consider 2-3% as a hefty charge. My company accepted all credit cards, as we had to. AMEx is the most expensive, which is why some merchants don't allow it. Transaction processing is expensive. It doesn't come out of thin air. People have to pay for convenience. Believe me, that small transaction charge is figured into pricing. Don't believe anything else you may be told.
Merchants and credit card companies lose money on the smallest purchases made on a card, as the transaction costs exceed the tiny fee. It's made up by the large dollar amounts on large purchases.
I am not sure about that. Most grocery stores accept card and those are often small purchases. I can't see the cc companies loosing here. Merchants pass it on to their clients. I am no expert, I just begrudgingly pay my fees. I sell higher ticket items and I don't really see how a $2000.- item is any more expensive to process than a $200.- transaction. Debit card fees are a fraction of CC fees, remember.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rabbit_Coach
I wonder wether somebody finds a hack to enable forwarding and still keeping a copy in your own phone or more so, how apple is going to protect against this kind of thing.
I'm sure there's a bar code that gets scanned when you enter a facility (same as when you download and print your own tickets). Once scanned, no one else gets admission with the same bar code.
I haven't tried the app yet and some people seem to have UI concerns, but the general idea is a good one, especially if you attend events (or fly) often. I hate having to print out tickets/boarding passes, etc. If they're just downloaded to the iPhone, that's a big advantage, IMO, especially if you're on the road and don't have access to a printer. As long as it's a non-frustrating UI, having all my boarding passes and event tickets in one place is a great idea. If there isn't already, there should be a linkage to the calendar so that clicking on a calendar event automatically brings up the tickets/passes for that event. And buying a ticket should automatically (or give an option to) put that event in the calendar.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
All I'm going to say (and I know I've said it before, sorry), is that I just don't "get" Passbook at all. I'm a smarter than average person and I work in tech and while I have read the explanations and do know how it's supposed to work more or less, I still don't "get it" in a visceral way. If I don't "get it" (to the point of actually being able to effectively use it in my daily life), then tens of thousands of others don't either.
- It's counter-intuitive to have an app that is useless until linked with another app, that you have to find first, install, and then link.
- It's just plain stupid to expect me to waste screens of real-estate to install apps just so they will show up in the passbook app.
- Even if I did this, it's not clear at all what happens next or how to "link" the two since the "linking" is invisible and behind the scenes.
- The kind of fools who salivate over a ten cent bargain are not generally the same people who buy expensive high-end smart phones.
Not everyone is comfortable with hundreds of apps on their phone. Many people, like me, only install a few things that they actually need/want. I'm not going to install an app for every bargain bin in my neighbourhood just so I *might* get a crappy coupon one day.
Until the day that some actual human in an actual store offers me a coupon that can be saved on my iPhone and actually tells me how to do it or does it for me, Passbook just isn't going to happen for me. I suspect that the vast majority of iPhone users are in the same boat.
It's just one of those useless new apps that sits on your device that you know *might* be useful someday but for the time being is just taking up space. So you put it in that folder that everyone has on the last screen that contains all the apps that Apple's marketing department forces on us, that you can't get rid of but that don't actually do anything.
the fact that you work in tech is probably why you don't get it
Acutally, merchants will see a cost savings, credit card companies will take a hit on transaction fees collected from point of sales transactions.
In the case of Starbucks, because people 'load' their Starbacks Card less frequently then visiting to store (i.e. loading $50 on the Starbucks Card vs using your credit card in store accumilating $50 in charges over time). Because Starbucks pays a transaction fee everytime a credit card is used, Starbucks will absolutely see a cost reduction.
For example, if I go into a Starbuck and use my credit card to purchase a $3 coffee M-F, that's 5 transactions which translates to 5 transaction fees Starbucks has to pay to credit card companies, where as if I load my Starbucks Card once for $15 dollars, Starbucks only has to pay one transaction fee. Starbuck absolutely love this, hence why tthey attached a 'rewards program' to their Starbucks card.
As this method of payment becomes more common, you can expect credit compaines (i.e. banks) to increase fee to recoup lost revenue from transaction fees.
Also, a law was recently passed allow merchants to charge more for credit card transactions vs using cash/check/debit card similar to gas stations. I can see some merchants using this to encourage customers
Depends on the teams.
Apple will handle the transaction and charge 30%
Quote:
Originally Posted by allenbf
Agree, but remember the option to "add to passbook" will be available via web, email, text, etc. So I don't think the app will need to be installed on your phone for that. I think.
That is 100% correct. I put the tickets to the Giants game I went to into Passbook by going to my SF Giants tickets page in Safari and clicking the "Add To Passbook" link. There was no extra app to be installed.
I really like it so far.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rabbit_Coach
I wonder wether somebody finds a hack to enable forwarding and still keeping a copy in your own phone or more so, how apple is going to protect against this kind of thing.
Effectively the first person to use the ticket blocks it from the system. If I forwarded my MLB ticket to someone else, then I went into the ballpark ahead of them, they would be refused entry.
It's no different to photocopying your "print at home" tickets. The barcodes are unique and can only be used once.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
All I'm going to say (and I know I've said it before, sorry), is that I just don't "get" Passbook at all. I'm a smarter than average person and I work in tech and while I have read the explanations and do know how it's supposed to work more or less, I still don't "get it" in a visceral way. If I don't "get it" (to the point of actually being able to effectively use it in my daily life), then tens of thousands of others don't either.
- It's counter-intuitive to have an app that is useless until linked with another app, that you have to find first, install, and then link.
- It's just plain stupid to expect me to waste screens of real-estate to install apps just so they will show up in the passbook app.
- Even if I did this, it's not clear at all what happens next or how to "link" the two since the "linking" is invisible and behind the scenes.
- The kind of fools who salivate over a ten cent bargain are not generally the same people who buy expensive high-end smart phones.
Not everyone is comfortable with hundreds of apps on their phone. Many people, like me, only install a few things that they actually need/want. I'm not going to install an app for every bargain bin in my neighbourhood just so I *might* get a crappy coupon one day.
Until the day that some actual human in an actual store offers me a coupon that can be saved on my iPhone and actually tells me how to do it or does it for me, Passbook just isn't going to happen for me. I suspect that the vast majority of iPhone users are in the same boat.
It's just one of those useless new apps that sits on your device that you know *might* be useful someday but for the time being is just taking up space. So you put it in that folder that everyone has on the last screen that contains all the apps that Apple's marketing department forces on us, that you can't get rid of but that don't actually do anything.
Gazoobee, I think your looking at it all wrong. Obviously the goal for Apple is to get as many people using passbook as possible but not everyone will. For you it may be pointless but how about the people that even prior to passbook used to buy e tickets and make e purchases with all those apps and now have a app to keep it all tidy and in a central location. It may not be for everybody, probably not something I'd ever use, but it's not a bad option for many others. It's a good, safer alternative to having NFC. Can't knock them for that unless you think the iPhone is lacking because it has no NFC which for me would be useless as I'd never use it.
As you see I do get what your saying as I never used the stock app or even itunes . I don't really ever download music but you can't expect everything in iOS to cater just to yourself. What I can say is be grateful Apple has the power to not let Carriers customize your iPhone Specifically to their taste. You may have some useless apps that take up space but they aren't comparable to the other phones bloatware.
I do wish it was set up with more of a one-time pad though, rather than a fixed barcode. Not sure if that is Starbucks fault or Apple.