In the UK, I can go to many restaurants and when I pay the bill and ask to pay by card, they just bring over the terminal (that has chip + pin, and swipe too), and if you have a contactless card, you just hold it for a couple of seconds near it and that's it. The same terminal will work with Apple Pay.
Of course not every merchant has one of these yet, but many cafes, retailers and eateries are beginning to use them.
From what I have read, the Apple Watch, once authorised, can be used for Apple Pay even after your iPhone has ran out of battery (and then once it stops detecting your heart rate, it is automatically deauthorised). But as far as I'm aware Apple hasn't said anything official yet, so this could be wrong.
Yes, once EMV cards (chip+pin) are rolled out in the US next year these portable readers should become common because at some point the credit card companies are going to make the retail outlet liable for any fraud on magnetic stripe swiped transactions.
Good summary of the state of the art in the two ecosystems. I'm in a situation where I have a high degree of confidence (based on experience and having worked for 4 years at Google) that neither Apple nor Google is going to try to "steal" my data or use it in ways that I wouldn't approve of. The same applies to Microsoft (I also worked there for a year, also as a SW engineer) and I think all three companies have a very good track record for security overall.
So I'm happy using a combination of Apple computers, Nexus phones and tablets, a Chromebook Pixel, Linux, and maybe my next phone will be an iPhone, but since I'm not fully immersed in the Apple ecosystem, but I am fully in bed with the Google cloud ecosystem, I end up using my Google account to bridge everything together.
If Apple wants to win the ecosystem wars where it counts (i.e. where Google is playing the game), they need to get people thinking of iCloud instead of Google's cloud. I really hope for Apple's sake that they have a secret project somewhere to write an Android app for iCloud or else I think a lot of people are going to stay with the Google ecosystem in which case, neither phone ecosystem has any advantage over the other as long as devices have WiFi or mobile data.
If Apple wants to win the ecosystem wars where it counts (i.e. where Google is playing the game), they need to get people thinking of iCloud instead of Google's cloud. I really hope for Apple's sake that they have a secret project somewhere to write an Android app for iCloud or else I think a lot of people are going to stay with the Google ecosystem in which case, neither phone ecosystem has any advantage over the other as long as devices have WiFi or mobile data.
Google does multi-platform solutions more because their business model is monetizing data. Apple makes its money from hardware sales. Offering services for competing hardware is mainly against their business model:
"We argued with Steve a bunch [about putting iTunes on Windows], and he said no. Finally, Phil Schiller and I said 'we're going to do it.' And Steve said, '**** you guys, do whatever you want. You're responsible.' And he stormed out of the room." - Jon Rubinstein
Sometimes it makes sense when the volume of users is so high and there's enough revenue coming in. iCloud for Android doesn't seem like it would qualify just now. Apple doesn't want people buying Android products and I think it will be a cold day in hell before they think about developing anything for Android. And no, they won't lose out because of it. People use Android devices and Macs just fine without it and the lack of it is an incentive to switch from Android devices to iOS ones. Apple's products are widely regarded as having the better eco-system as it is, it doesn't make sense to open that up to promote competitors.
Comments
Yes, the merchant brings a portal NFC terminal.
In the UK, I can go to many restaurants and when I pay the bill and ask to pay by card, they just bring over the terminal (that has chip + pin, and swipe too), and if you have a contactless card, you just hold it for a couple of seconds near it and that's it. The same terminal will work with Apple Pay.
Of course not every merchant has one of these yet, but many cafes, retailers and eateries are beginning to use them.
From what I have read, the Apple Watch, once authorised, can be used for Apple Pay even after your iPhone has ran out of battery (and then once it stops detecting your heart rate, it is automatically deauthorised). But as far as I'm aware Apple hasn't said anything official yet, so this could be wrong.
Yes, once EMV cards (chip+pin) are rolled out in the US next year these portable readers should become common because at some point the credit card companies are going to make the retail outlet liable for any fraud on magnetic stripe swiped transactions.
So I'm happy using a combination of Apple computers, Nexus phones and tablets, a Chromebook Pixel, Linux, and maybe my next phone will be an iPhone, but since I'm not fully immersed in the Apple ecosystem, but I am fully in bed with the Google cloud ecosystem, I end up using my Google account to bridge everything together.
If Apple wants to win the ecosystem wars where it counts (i.e. where Google is playing the game), they need to get people thinking of iCloud instead of Google's cloud. I really hope for Apple's sake that they have a secret project somewhere to write an Android app for iCloud or else I think a lot of people are going to stay with the Google ecosystem in which case, neither phone ecosystem has any advantage over the other as long as devices have WiFi or mobile data.
Google does multi-platform solutions more because their business model is monetizing data. Apple makes its money from hardware sales. Offering services for competing hardware is mainly against their business model:
"We argued with Steve a bunch [about putting iTunes on Windows], and he said no. Finally, Phil Schiller and I said 'we're going to do it.' And Steve said, '**** you guys, do whatever you want. You're responsible.' And he stormed out of the room." - Jon Rubinstein
https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131016120903-37087-the-butterfly-that-started-the-apple-tsunami
Sometimes it makes sense when the volume of users is so high and there's enough revenue coming in. iCloud for Android doesn't seem like it would qualify just now. Apple doesn't want people buying Android products and I think it will be a cold day in hell before they think about developing anything for Android. And no, they won't lose out because of it. People use Android devices and Macs just fine without it and the lack of it is an incentive to switch from Android devices to iOS ones. Apple's products are widely regarded as having the better eco-system as it is, it doesn't make sense to open that up to promote competitors.