
The success of Apple Pay lies in its consistent and well integrated UI that hides complexity from users. There are limitations however, and users are bumping up against them the more they use Apple Pay and the increasingly complex Wallet. This happens with fellow gaijin in Japan unfamiliar with the JP mobile payment landscape and history. The differences are outlined in detail here but all you need to know is that at it was first conceived ‘say Apple Pay’ = the default Apple Pay card. This was short-circuited by the addition of Express Transit in 2016 for Suica, a new kind of default card that trumps the old one, that has been a problem on OMNY transit gates for manual swipe legacy MetroCard users.
The basic issue is outlined in FeliCa Dude’s tweet: when Wallet has multiple EMV cards, iPhone doesn’t know which EMV PSE (Payment System Environment) to present to the reader…the digital equivalent of card clash. The user has to manually select one. It’s one of the reasons why the Ventra system is open loop for plastic contactless plastic cards and Apple Pay without Express Transit, but not for EMV Express Transit. Instead Ventra uses closed loop EMV for Apple Pay Ventra, but EMV open loop vs EMV closed loop will always be an uneasy mix on the same system.
Officially Apple Pay only has single default payment card, the ‘say Apple Pay’ card. Unofficially you can have one payment card, one EMV Express Transit card, and multiple native Express Transit cards: one Suica, one PASMO, one Octopus, one Clipper, etc. Saying Apple Pay doesn’t work when there are multiple default cards.
This is going to get worse when Apple finally releases Apple Pay Code Payments which have been in internal testing since the first iOS 14 betas a year ago. We might see some Code Payment details during WWDC21, and I am sure that we will see more UWB Touchess action. Either way the days of saying Apple Pay are numbered. What kind of Apple Pay? NFC, QR or Touchless? And which default card? I’ve said it before and say it again:
There is one more interesting role that Apple has planned for UWB…one that promises to improve the entire Apple Pay and Wallet experience: communicating with the reader before transaction to select the right Wallet card for the job, at a distance, for a truly smart Wallet app. With national ID cards, passports and more coming to Wallet at some point, UWB could be the Wallet reboot we really need.
‘We really need a Wallet reboot’ is on full display with recently refreshed Apple Pay webpage with Wallet getting a whole separate page because Wallet holds many kinds of cards: payment, transit, reward, student ID, passes and card keys. There are some interesting branding tweaks that suggest some changes coming with iOS 15. The first one is the change from Express Transit to Express Mode. This brings it in line with Student ID which has been called Express Mode all along as it opens doors, like a transit gate, and pays for stuff, like Suica and Octopus. Express Mode/Transit debuted with the iOS 10.1 Apple Pay Suica launch in 2016, the Japanese UI uses the term Express Card which is a better fit as the Suica is more than just transit. Hopefully this is just a teaser for WWDC21 and iOS 15.
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