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by 21echoes 4297 days ago
> Apple Pay marks the first time a popular operating system is making payments a platform service for real-world, non-digital-good transactions, in a broad, inclusive manner that is compatible with the mainstream payments processing industry

I'm sorry... what? How is this different from Google making Google Wallet back in 2011? They both use the same tech (PayPass, an industry standard), and both are made by an OS company.
4 comments
eddieroger 4297 days ago
> I'm sorry... what? How is this different from Google making Google Wallet back in 2011?

Google only partnered with MasterCard, and only released in a limited number of handsets (they were all Nexus if I remember correctly). Apple partnered with Visa, MasterCard and AmEx ahead of time, as well as a dozen or so merchants, so that anyone who gets an iPhone 6 can actually use ApplePay nearly immediately without jumping through hoops or hoping they have the right handset. At least that's what I read as "broad, inclusive."

For what it's worth, I tried using GWallet when it came to my Nexus S years ago, and got the strangest look from the guy at the convenience store when I held my phone to the reader and the register marked the transaction as complete. Just because Google was first by no means did it right or best, as evidenced through us not all walking around with Androids paying for things.

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Oletros 4297 days ago
They partnered with some more http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com.es/2012/08/use-any-credit...
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rtpg 4297 days ago
I'm always suprised at how Apple and co. can so bluntly deny the existence of prior art for what they do.

Even if they do it better, that doesn't mean they're the first.

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jedmeyers 4297 days ago
They never say they are first. They say they are "first popular".
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jvm 4297 days ago
They say "First popular operating system."

Not even Steve Cook has a reality distortion field strong enough to pull that one off.

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gress 4297 days ago
Google wallet was unpopular and was impeded by the cell carriers. It was a business failure, not a technical one.
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StavrosK 4297 days ago
"Apple Pay marks the first time a popular operating system is making payments a platform service"

Android is a popular operating system. Android made payments a platform service. Therefore, that sentence is blatantly false.

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21echoes 4297 days ago
Sure, I totally agree that Google Wallet was basically a business failure.

I'd also say that the only thing that may stop Apple Pay from being a business failure is that it's Apple doing it this time (even tho, frankly, their UI looks significantly worse than Google Wallet, and has far less functionality, and Google Wallet is no longer impeded by the carriers)...

But that's not what the article section i quoted was talking about. It just made an unqualified claim "this is the first time an OS maker has made a payments product for the physical world"

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GuiA 4297 days ago
I've never used Google wallet- but how could Apple's UI be worse? All you do is tap your device. How did Google Wallet work?
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rstupek 4297 days ago
Yeah I found that to be mildly humorous. Not sure how the UI is terrible, it looks pretty simple and well thought out
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21echoes 4297 days ago
that's the payment experience, sure, but there's all those moments before and after your payment. say, adding a card, managing which cards you want to use at which locations, etc. there was plenty of footage in the live stream this morning, or stills here: http://www.apple.com/apple-pay/

but the bigger point: you're quibbling over the first of three points i made in an aside (the other two being that google wallet has way more features, and that google wallet is now not blocked from being on Verizon et al). The larger point is that the article saying that this is the first OS to have a payments solution is... very strange.

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gareim 4297 days ago
Well, there's the second half of that sentence which qualifies it with "broad, inclusive". I'm not saying I agree, although it could be that Apple believes Google Wallet was not broad, inclusive, or both.
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poolpool 4297 days ago
Apple is a hardware company. Google just releases as much software as they can and sees what catches on since any additional user spending additional time being tracked is a win for them. Apple writes software to make their hardware more appealing.

Bad android sales doesn't affect Google. Bad iPhone sales would tank Apple.

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