It’s very odd when you consider that global FeliCa iPhone 8 is the only smartphone in the world that you can use out of the box to add a Suica card and use SmartEX to ride the Shinkansen with just iPhone 8 and Apple Pay Suica. You do not need a Mobile Suica account like any other smartphone because Apple built Suica functions and connectivity into Apple Pay.
That is unique and interesting but why did JR Central go out of its way and devote resources to support JR East and Apple Pay Suica when their own TOICA transit card only exists as a plastic one? It doesn’t make sense: all the elite EX-PRESS business travelers who use the JR Central Shinkansen regularly will dump TOICA and go all in with Apple Pay Suica. Companies invest resources for a reason, something is going on.
It is also very odd that PASMO registered the Mobile PASMO trademark on Apple Keynote day as the first step before anything else including, it seems, creating a plan. Clearly a branding trademark is on PASMO’s mind. Let’s look at these intriguing pieces from a branding perspective.
The Apple Pay Suica diagram looks like this:
Apple invested a lot of time and effort to add global FeliCa and emulate all the Suica FeliCa functions in Apple Pay and on iPhone hardware. As Japanese IT journalist Junya Suzuki pointed out in his Mobile PASMO piece, all the Japanese transit cards are compatible on the outside but on the inside there are differences in how they use the FeliCa chip and add service extras.
Implementing all those differences and service extras in Apple Pay and on iPhone hardware is a lot of work for Apple. There is also the problem of a PASMO building their own mobile service with limited financial resources. And there is very little time until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
PASMO’s trademark move suggests the solution is simply going to be a branding one:
Start with a basic service that offers the 2 big things Japanese users want most:
- Commuter passes
- Credit card loyalty points
JR East started simple by dropping EX-PRESS Shinkansen options from the Suica App until JR Central had iPhone Apple Pay Suica interoperability in place. JR Central is doing the same with the browser only simplistic SmartEX JP registration process.
This model can work for iOS apps too. JR East could host a PASMO app in addition to their Suica app:
The evidence so far suggests this is how Mobile PASMO will play out. It provides an easy model for PASMO and the other transit cards to get on board Apple Pay quickly then add back service extras over time. JR Central cooperation with JR East and Apple Pay Suica is another sign that things are warming up on several fronts.
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