Page 6 - index

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Will Apple's first maneuver in mobile payment

checkmate competitors?

spending is done on iOS applications. Developers - and
in particular the new mobile POS startups, such as
Square, iZettle, Payleven - absolutely love Apple devic-
es and iOS.

Thus, to no surprise, Tim Cook announced just last
month the highest turnover in the company's history.
According to him, 51 million iPhone 5S were sold that
brought in a good profit thanks to a margin on all devic-
es of around 40%, besides the company’s incredible
achievement of 90% customer satisfaction and loyalty
among iPhones users.

In the fall of 2012, Apple introduced the "Passbook", a
"Barcode Payment Container" that can store coupons,
No other company is as closely examined and observed tickets and boarding passes, providing developers and
as Apple. With all eyes on each move it takes, there is brands an easy solution to integrate services via a
certainly room for all kinds of rumors and speculation technical interface. More than 100 brands, such as
that fuel again news and imagination on new products, Lufthansa or British Airways, make use of it and offer to
offers and technologies. And that for good reasons! Ap- save tickets in the Passbook, as well as many brands
ple has often proven in the past that it is able to turn the that integrate vouchers that way.
business of various industries upside down and shift
markets fundamentally.
Fingerprint sensor: Touch ID-safety is the biggest
hurdle for a successful mobile banking and payment
But is the company still able to meet the industry’s ex- system, influencing the frequency of use and accepta-
pectations? The transition from Steve Jobs to Tim Cook bility of services on the part of customers and dealers.
left its marks with increasing and louder doomsday pre- Besides getting faster access to the device, the finger-
dictions. Has Apple already had its days? Does the print solution should be used in the future for authenti-
company now enter the mobile payment arena? What cation, as it is essential a prerequisite for a fast, attrac-
will be their offerings and what role will the company tive and secure payment process. In Asia and the US
play there? Are they planning their sweeping blow or did biometrics are already more widespread than in Eu-
they already miss the train, as they still haven’t integrat- rope, nevertheless the industry is advised to keep an
ed Near Field Communication (NFC) so far? Or is their eye on the technology and its suitability for online bank-
time coming to an end because of the "Android" strate- ing or commerce and to observe the reactions of the
gy of an open eco-system? regulatory authorities. But despite all concerns, Tim
Cook just stated: “Mobile Payment via Touch ID is on
Everything seems possible and as always Apple keeps its way.”
its cards close to its chest. However, there are by now
more than clear signals in which direction the company Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and iBeacons: The
is heading. As in the past, Apple's maneuver in mobile technology standard BLE has long been integrated into
payment will for sure be carefully monitored and super- the relevant smartphones and tablets of the leading
vised, but the time window for its own self-designed mo- manufacturers, making it far more widespread than
bile payment strategy and approach gradually starts to NFC technology. By using iBeacons - introduced in
close. September 2013 - marketing and GPS solutions within
stores are made possible to the point of mobile pay-
No competitor in this segment should assume that in 1- ment in interaction with the touch ID, among other
2 years there will still be time for placing the chess piec- things. In addition, BLE and iBeacons are Apple’s re-
es unhurriedly on the "Next Generation Payment” sponse to the "Internet of Things", which is another big
chessboard, as Apple's first maneuver could then mean trend that will integrate the mobile use of smartphones
“Checkmate"! and tablets in business in the long term.

The facts speak for themselves: With 600 million iTunes Currently, China has 500 million mobile Internet users
users, Apple’s customer base is 4 times larger than that and the market has off the bat become the largest mo-
of PayPal and almost 3.5 times as large as the one of bile payment market in the world, making it Apple’s

Amazon, with 500,000 customers being gained on a main target for its impressive demand for mobile pay-
daily basis. Anyway, more than half of all m-commerce ment and speed of growth. The Chinese central bank
6 Asian eMarketing April 2014 - Mobile Marketing