[coopsmoss]

I've noticed this kind of thing happens a lot, especially with banks. The institution or counties that "went digital" earliest are now hampered by the tech debt and infrastructure from the early days. And slower institutions/counties can leap frog them.

[BeFlatXIII]

Hotel wi-fi is my go-to example of this. The fancy downtown hotels full of business travelers all signed contracts with digitization providers who charge $20/night for flakey and slow service. The Motel Six by the interstate has free and faster connections. For the hotels, there is the added complication that expensive hotels often have people other than the guest paying for the expenses while cheap hotels have travelers comparing on price.

[oconnor663]

Yeah I think this is why the US is so behind the curve on paying for things with phones. We went all in early on credit cards, and those are still mostly good enough for most cases, so there's not a lot of incentive to upgrade.

[twostorytower]

I feel like Apple Pay is almost everywhere I go now.

[voidfunc]

Is it? I have found there can be massive PoS differences between the coast. For example everywhere on the west coast it seems restaurants bring the CC scanner to your table and use a fancy digital checkout/pay system in restaurants. On the East coast we still hand credit cards to wait staff who give us paper receipts that then disappear to god knows where to run it.

I dont even think Apple Pay is common at all around here in Boston/Cambridge.

[ip26]

I figure contactless got a big unexpected boost from COVID. Suddenly not having to touch anything at all to check out because very appealing.

It was "around" for ten years previously, not making many inroads. Suddenly it's everywhere.

[donatj]

I think that's just true about everything. You spend a ton of money deploying something, you're not going to rush to spend a ton of money deploying every incremental change.

[Tijdreiziger]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_handicap_of_a_head_...