[sosborn]

Japan's NFC payment ecosystem is owned by Sony and DoCoMo. I highly doubt that Apple wanted to subject themselves to the license terms and/or the lack of technical control.

That system is also widely deployed but in my experience (9 years of living there, no evidence other than anecdotal) not widely used.

[hrktb]

Docomo is pretty willing to open up their technology to expand the ecosystem (that's what they did with Softbank and au, and JR also has a part in it), because they know it would die if they kept it for themselves. And that's openly one of the role of BitWallet, the joint venture they made for the solution. Actually I really hoped they could do something with that outside of Japan.

I think regarding to NFC, it really depends on where you live. I was commuting on a JR line, and having Mobile Suica combine with Edy was such a boon that I could forget my wallet I wouldn't care. Just having your phone means you can ride the train, buy anything at the convince store, pay the restaurant (you may have less choice, but there's a lot of them accepting Edy or another service), buy music or electronics, and buy drinks from vending machines. It's almost surreal how much you can do.

I later moved to the Keikyuu line and it was still great, but less magical.

In terms of technical control, Apple already choose "standard NFC" (at least that's the quote I have on the liveblog), and I would guess they are bound by Visa and Amex for the implementation. A priori Felica is part of the NFC standard, IF it supports the encrypted protocol it should be OK to have everything as third party apps.

[sdrothrock]

> having Mobile Suica combine with Edy

Not to mention the Suica + Pasmo combination a year or so ago that meant you didn't have to carry around two cards anymore. It was pretty amazing. It's at a point now where I'm really reluctant to buy phones that don't have mobile Suica/osaifu keitai support.

[cynix]

> That system is also widely deployed but in my experience (9 years of living there, no evidence other than anecdotal) not widely used.

I hardly ever carry cash with me anymore when I'm in Japan. Suica and Edy are accepted almost everywhere and it's super convenient. I'm sure it's even better for people who live there because they can get it integrated into their phone, which is not available to tourists like me.

[eloisant]

Well, Suica is widely used for payment - and not just to buy train tickets.