Apple rumored to announce Apple Pay for the web at WWDC 2016
Building on rumors claiming Apple Pay would see website integration this year, a report on Friday says Apple is planning to officially announce the new payment feature at its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote next week.
The report from Digital Trends is light on details, but the publication's sources say Apple is ready to announce Apple Pay website integration, which brings with it the promise of seamless touch-to-pay transactions on popular e-commerce sites. Apple is predicted to reveal the new branch of Apple Pay onstage at the WWDC 2016 keynote event on Monday, sources said.
While Apple has long been rumored to be working on website support for its in-house payments service, Re/code in March was first to attach a concrete timeline to a potential launch, saying the platform would debut later this year. At the time, it was said Apple plans to limit website transactions to a secure transaction process over which the company has full control, namely Safari for iOS on Touch ID-equipped iPhones and iPads.
In the intervening months rumors of a revamped MacBook Pro have surfaced. According to well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple's new flagship laptop will sport some ilk of Touch ID technology, potentially embedded in an OLED touchbar component that replaces the top row of physical function keys. This would not only facilitate secure logins, but also introduce support for services like Apple Pay that are currently restricted to iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Sources cited in today's report are not sure if users will be able to complete website purchases on devices lacking Touch ID, a current requirement for all Apple Pay transactions. Whether Apple plans to open the service to third-party web browsers is also unknown.
As for availability, Re/code believes Apple Pay website integration will be ready in time for the busy holiday shopping season.
AppleInsider will be on the scene at WWDC 2016 to offer live coverage of the event's most interesting news. Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top executives are expected to take the stage when the keynote kicks off on Monday, June 13 at 10 a.m. Pacific.
The report from Digital Trends is light on details, but the publication's sources say Apple is ready to announce Apple Pay website integration, which brings with it the promise of seamless touch-to-pay transactions on popular e-commerce sites. Apple is predicted to reveal the new branch of Apple Pay onstage at the WWDC 2016 keynote event on Monday, sources said.
While Apple has long been rumored to be working on website support for its in-house payments service, Re/code in March was first to attach a concrete timeline to a potential launch, saying the platform would debut later this year. At the time, it was said Apple plans to limit website transactions to a secure transaction process over which the company has full control, namely Safari for iOS on Touch ID-equipped iPhones and iPads.
In the intervening months rumors of a revamped MacBook Pro have surfaced. According to well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple's new flagship laptop will sport some ilk of Touch ID technology, potentially embedded in an OLED touchbar component that replaces the top row of physical function keys. This would not only facilitate secure logins, but also introduce support for services like Apple Pay that are currently restricted to iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Sources cited in today's report are not sure if users will be able to complete website purchases on devices lacking Touch ID, a current requirement for all Apple Pay transactions. Whether Apple plans to open the service to third-party web browsers is also unknown.
As for availability, Re/code believes Apple Pay website integration will be ready in time for the busy holiday shopping season.
AppleInsider will be on the scene at WWDC 2016 to offer live coverage of the event's most interesting news. Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top executives are expected to take the stage when the keynote kicks off on Monday, June 13 at 10 a.m. Pacific.
Comments
In the UK, NFC is everywhere and Apple Pay is everywhere with it, even if the retail staff don't know it.
I bought some bits at a stately home gift shop a while back. Tapped the iPhone on the terminal while the young flappy-fringed youth looked at me like I'd lost my mind. His eyes nearly fell out when the terminal beeped. "What did you just do??"
I guess not all youngsters feel the need to keep up. Good for him.
Here's how I think it will go down:
Apple Pay will work with various vendors who want to support Apple Pay, the website backend will check of the device is an iOS device via the user agent and only present Apple Pay to iOS devices.
For Desktop/Laptop devices, there will likely be a Bluetooth/WiFi sync that transfers the browser session over to the iOS device if there is no touch-id on the device. I can see touch-id enabled laptops and iMac's becoming a thing (an iMac would likely put the touch id on the bezel.)
There is where Google, Samsung et al have no chance of competing. Good luck getting "touch id"-like things into desktops, The only secure path is over the HDMI link. A USB fingerprint reader is not secure since you can just emulate it. (which is why "cloud based" biometric two-factor is a disaster waiting to happen), and USB-based EMV card readers have existed for well over 12 years. I have one in my junk-cable pile. Useful for reading the track information off chip cards, not useful for actually conducting a payment since exactly zero sites have a means to do EMV from a desktop.
If true, that's a ridiculous amount of money. Even if Apple Pay only worked in Safari on iOS devices with Touch ID I could see the number of Apple Pay transactions skyrocketing.
I suspect that the way it will be implemented on a Mac will be similar to the way it is implemented on the Apple Watch -- The Mac will be paired with your iPhone, which is within BT/WiFi range.
You currently can pair your iPhone with multiple watches, so adding Macs should require little change to iOS.
Then at checkout, the user selects ApplePay, and Safari sends the token/packet to the bank.
Apple would provide standard web code to be included in the vendors web site that:
It should be fairly easy for any new or existing web site to accept ApplePay, and gain the benefits, thereof.
It will be difficult for sites like Walmart or Home Depot to opt out of support for online ApplePay.
Mega boom!
Except, going forward, the vendor will not have your credit card info on their servers, where it can be hacked -- that's a very big advantage.
Why do you need any of that on the Mac? The iPhone already has touchID, the secure element/enclave and the means to initiate and process ApplePay transactions. An AppleWatch, when paired with an iPhone assumes the ability to initiate ApplePay transactions -- while the processing of the transactions is left to the iPhone.
I assume that:
The transactions would be securely processed (by the iPhone) and the only information displayed on (sent to) the Mac is pictures of your credit cards showing the last 4 digits only.
The reason that others can't compete is that Apple:
I wouldn't be surprised to see a later rollout where you can use your ApplePay on someone else's computer by ad hoc pairing.