The Apple support pages for adding transit cards and e-Money cards has a completely new updated section for transferring cards to a new iPhone: iOS 17 Setup Assistant automatically transfers the cards for you, there is also a completely new section to transfer cards manually in Wallet app.
The pre-iOS 17 way to transfer cards is very different. Transfer is manual only, Setup Assistant does not move transit cards automatically, and in Wallet app you have to remove the transit (or e-Money card) from the old device first, before it will appear in Previous Cards ready to be added to the new device.
In iOS 17 Wallet the first thing you see is all the cards on your other devices, a paired Apple Watch or the old iPhone if you are setting up new iPhone Wallet:
This is multi-device provisioning, a new iOS 17 Wallet feature that Apple isn’t promoting very much because all the action happens behind the scenes. Make no mistake though, this is a game changer because it eliminates a whole mountain range of confusion when transferring stored value cards. Stored value cards keep the balance on the card itself so they can only exist on a single device. The truth is in the card, not the cloud.
This has caused a lot of confusion and frustration over the years for Apple Pay Suica users who assumed that Suica cards work like credit cards, then panicked when they upgraded to a new iPhone with Quick Start Setup Assistant only to find that Suica was not on the new iPhone. This is gone now because iOS 17 Wallet multi-device provisioning makes everything automatic and easy: it transfers the card you want to transfer and “removes” it from the other device, except that it “leaves” an empty place holder card on the old device. No deletion necessary. The old Suica 2-step is officially dead. From the Apple support page fine print: “Once transfer is complete, the previous card will remain visible in the Wallet app with an indication that the card can’t be used.”
Let’s take a look as I move a PASMO card from Apple Watch to iPhone:
Select the card to transferTap NextTransfer in ProgressDoneStill there but ‘Unavailable’ on the previous device
As you can see the transfer is completed with PASMO now in iPhone Wallet but the PASMO card is also on the Apple Watch Wallet listed as ‘Unavailable’. If you look in Apple Watch Wallet you see this:
This is where it really gets interesting. Don’t remove the unavailable card. Leave it there and transfer it back from iPhone, voila PASMO is back on Apple Watch. The same PASMO card on iPhone is still there as ‘This card cannot be used’. Remove or leave it. Either way is fine. Think of it as a decorative place holder that can be re-filled with the real card contents at any time.
If you hanker for the old way of removing a card when transferring to or from Apple Watch, Watch app still offers it in Wallet and Apple Pay settings, tap ‘Add’ in the ‘Other Cards On Your iPhone’ section.
So there you have it. Multi-device provision powered iOS 17 Wallet changes a lot of things: Setup Assistant automatically takes care of transferring Suica, PASMO, Octopus, China T-Union, Clipper, etc. to a new iPhone. This is likely another benefit of Apple dropping support for non older power reserve embedded secure element (eSE) iPhone models in iOS 17. It’s what power reserve eSE v2 iPhone XS and later can do that older models can’t. Wallet is far more flexible and seamless dealing with multiple devices. Users probably won’t see much difference but tech support folks have had a huge load taken off their hands. This is Apple making the Wallet user experience, already the best out there, a far better one.
When foreign issue VISA cards in Wallet stopped working for Apple Pay In-App Suica and PASMO recharge on August 5, the first people to howl in pain were Apple Pay PASMO users who suddenly couldn’t recharge with their Chase Sapphire VISA cards. Chase Sapphire users earned 3x travel points with a PASMO recharge, long time resident Suica users migrated to PASMO when JR East and VISA shut down 3x travel points in May 2021 when VISA finally signed with Apple Pay in Japan.
After confirming that my Wells Fargo Signature VISA stopped working for Apple Pay Suica recharge, I contacted Mobile Suica support. The official line: “There should be no problem with foreign issue cards, contact the card issuer.” My next stop was Wells Fargo card services support, official line: “There should be no problem with your VISA, contact the merchant.” Entirely expected of course but Wells Fargo confirm that Mobile Suica transaction attempts were not even showing on the Wells Fago system. They said it seems to be a ‘communications issue’ which meant something is not right on the VISA payment network merchant transaction authorization side. Everything was stopping there.
An Android Suica user confirmed the same non-JP VISA problem with Google Pay Suica recharge so it was larger issue than just Apple Pay. I contacted IT journalist Junya Suzuki who focuses on mobile payments. His first thought was something was going on with the VISA Japan payment network merchant acquirer side. For reference, the merchant acquirer handles transaction authorization from the merchant side, ‘this transaction is clear to send to the card issuer.’ The issuer then clears the transaction with the customer account, ‘this customer is good to pay for this charge.’
Merchant acquirer relations are very secretive, nobody knows who is the merchant acquirer is for Mobile Suica, Mobile PASMO and Mobile ICOCA though everybody is pretty sure it is the SMBC Group who are the banking group for all things VISA in Japan. Maybe they were tightening online transaction security…or something else. Suzuki san checked his sources and had this to say:
An acquirer made the decision stopping handling cards issued in other countries…In addition, that means JRE doesn’t know what’s happening on this problem.
In a his Japanese article he described JR East as a ‘victim’ of a situation forced by VISA, their hands are clearly tied. VISA payment network and their merchant acquirer are highly selective. For example: foreign issue VISA works fine for Apple Pay in-app purchases with the Starsbucks app, but not in-app purchase with JR East for Suica recharge. If foreign VISA cards were insecure, VISA would be stopping all In-App and online transactions, but they are not. This means the ‘security concerns’ excuse doesn’t wash, it’s a ruse for something else.
Security and Apple Pay Enhanced Fraud Prevention It’s helpful to examine the impact of phishing and other security attacks targeting NTT Docomo, Line Pay, PayPay and other QR code mobile payment service users in late 2020, and JR East online service users (Mobile Suica, JRE POINT, Eki-Net and VIEW card) in early 2022. Security responses were varied and vague. Companies like to say they value customer security but hardly provide details of what they’re doing about it. Security details hashed out between the card brands, merchant acquirers and merchants are secret non-disclosure territory.
Japanese credit card issuers responded by upgrading to EMV 3-D Secure v2 (3-D stands for three domains: the merchant acquirer domain, the issuer domain, and the interoperability domain), for non-digital wallet browser and mobile app payments. EMV 3-D Secure is the EMV e-commerce browser and app authentication tokenization specification with the card brands using their own naming and implementing merchant support in their respective payment networks.
In addition to adding 3-D Secure v2 in their Mobile Suica and Eki-Net apps, JR East has beefed up security to fight Mobile Suica phishing attacks with tighter monitoring of Suica App recharge with the app registered credit card…not Wallet In-App recharge. It’s important to understand this key point:
3-D Secure has nothing to do with Apple Pay and Google Pay, they and all other digital wallets like Samsung Pay, Huawei Pay, etc., do not use it. They have their own tokenization scheme. This is a common online misconception. Japanese issue VISA (and everything else), foreign issue Mastercard and Amex cards work for Apple Pay Suica • PASMO • ICOCA recharge without problems, without 3-D Secure.
Domestic security issues do not apply to inbound visitors adding and using Suica cards in Apple Wallet. They do not use Suica App or have a Mobile Suica account. And yet VISA seems to be using domestic security problems to block foreign issue cards for Apple Pay In-App recharge.
JR East is fighting phishing attacks with stricter Suica App registered credit card use monitoring. Suspicious can lead to Suica being locked by JR East for credit card recharge but cash recharge is always available.
The tokenization that Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and similar digital wallets use is highly secure, some say more secure than EMV 3-D Secure tokenization. Despite this, Apple has been making some changes to Apple Pay to enhance security for online and in-app purchases, at the behest of VISA. Apple Pay quietly launched Enhanced Fraud Protection in April 2022 when Apple Cash switched from Discover to VISA. The updated Apple Pay and Privacy text added a new section:
For cards with certain enhanced fraud prevention, when you attempt an online or in-app transaction, your device will evaluate information about your Apple ID, device, and location if you have enabled Location Services for Wallet, in order to develop on-device fraud prevention assessments. The output of the on-device fraud prevention assessments, but not the underlying data, will be sent to Apple and combined with information Apple knows about your device and account to develop Apple Pay transaction fraud prevention assessments. These transaction fraud prevention assessments may be shared with your payment network, together with a shipping address identifier and IP address if available, in order to prevent fraud at the time of transaction. The shipping address identifier differs per payment network and may be used to confirm whether shipping addresses for different transactions using a particular card on your device are the same in a way that does not reveal the underlying address. You can check whether a card has this enhanced fraud prevention at any time by going to the back of your payment credential in Wallet. To prevent the sharing of fraud prevention assessments with your payment network, you can select another card.
This means that Apple Pay ‘might’ share iPhone/Apple Watch location information when making online or in-app purchases. So far VISA cards are the only ones that have Enhanced Fraud Protection but it doesn’t seem to apply to all VISA issue cards and it’s hard to tell which VISA cards use it.
Does enhanced fraud prevention have anything to do with Apple Pay Suica and PASMO recharge not working for foreign issue VISA? The short answer is no, but it’s a background development to be aware of because: 1) it’s limited to online and in-app purchases, 2) VISA is pushing for ‘fraud prevention assessments’ so they could obtain device location information and more. Only after VISA started pushing this agenda did we start having recharge issues with Apple Pay In-App payments.
The VISA open loop power play So we circle back to foreign issue VISA use in Japan again. Why are cards cleared for Apple Pay, cards that worked fine up until August, not working? The timing is perfect when you also consider that VISA is heavily promoting ‘VISA Touch’ EMV contactless and open loop transit in Japan as a challenge to the home grown FeliCa based Transit IC card system. It’s very convenient for VISA Touch open loop marketing purposes when Apple Pay Suica and PASMO are kneecapped as easy payment and transit options for inbound visitors.
VISA has a history of not playing nice with Japanese stored value cards on mobile and not playing nice with Apple Pay. Japanese issue VISA cards didn’t work for Apple Pay in-app purchases and Suica recharge until May 2021, VISA waited 5 years to ‘resolve’ that issue. VISA cards still do not work with Mobile WAON and Mobile nanaco on Android and Apple Pay, they likely never will. My take is that VISA is not happy with people using VISA cards like an ATM to move money into stored value prepaid cards for making payments, earning points, etc., that are not VISA.
Examining VISA’s moves in the Japanese market proves one thing: payment network issues are never simple or solved quickly because they often come down to market politics. VISA has never played nice with Apple Pay in Japan since the very beginning, they continue to do so. At the very least we can mark this down as another skirmish in the ongoing digital payment turf wars.
This post was originally posted 2022-08-08 and has been updated to reflect a changing situation. The post date reflects the latest major update.
Non-JP VISA cards cannot be used for select Apple Pay In-App payments for Mobile Suica, Mobile PASMO, Mobile ICOCA and Apple Pay online payments for Universal Studio Japan advance tickets.
On June 24 from 0:37 to 13:00 JST, JR East online services went offline due to a mishap during server center related power supply construction. The most affected services were the most used: Mobile Suica and the online Eki-Net ticketing service. While embarrassing and inconvenient, the damage was minimal due to the fact that the outage was like a very long nightly maintenance when all services are taken offline. There were no transactions taking place, all JR East had to do was refund Eki-Net ticket holders who couldn’t change their reservations.
A shorter, far more problematic and partial Mobile Suica outage happened on June 24 from 16:24 to 18:00. Despite media reports screaming ‘Mobile Suica is down again’ even though the system itself was running just fine on non-Apple devices. This one was not on JR East or the Mobile Suica system: Apple Pay servers crashed from overload on Apple Pay ICOCA launch day taking down Suica, PASMO, WAON, nanaco, Hong Kong Octopus and other Apple device Wallet services worldwide. JR East had to refund iOS Suica App iPhone users who could not use purchased Suica Green Car Tickets.
Media reports were sensationalistic and misleading, claiming the outage left “Suica App Users Stranded at Ticket Gates“, when Suica App has nothing to do with using Suica at transit gates. Naturally, social media sites and online media report comment sections were full of ‘I’m going back to plastic Suica’ comments. Yahoo News Japan even ran a brain dead hack piece from GIZMODO entitled, “Be prepared: carry an unregistered plastic Suica in case of Mobile Suica problems,” recommending unregistered Suica because, ‘anybody can share it.’ Both writer and editors failed to notice that unregistered plastic Suica and PASMO cards are currently unavailable due to chip shortages.
Here’s the thing, plastic Suica isn’t ‘safer’ than Mobile Suica. It’s a myth:
Myth: I can’t use Mobile Suica if the service is offline.
Reality: Offline Mobile Suica doesn’t affect card use, the situation is no different than nightly offline maintenance.
You can always use Mobile Suica for transit and payments, it is no different from plastic, a Mobile Suica outage doesn’t affect that. The only real impact is the mobile exclusive credit/debit card recharge function and this is no different than the nightly maintenance when Mobile Suica goes offline. It’s the same situation for Mobile PASMO and Mobile ICOCA. Cash recharge is always available 24/7 at any convenience store, Seven Bank ATMs which are everywhere, and mobile friendly station recharge kiosks which are also everywhere these days.
The only real outage inconvenience was for people who wanted to buy Mobile Suica extras: Suica Green Car Tickets, Suica Day Passes, or those who might need to renew their Mobile Suica commuter pass…on a Saturday.
Which brings us to the GIZMODO Japan hack piece that was full of outrageous misinformation, implying not only that Mobile Suica on smartphones automatically stops working in an outage, you can simply go out and buy a plastic unregistered Suica card and use it anytime you need to. This is exactly the same stupid shit that bloggers posted back when Apple Pay Suica launched in 2016: carry a plastic Suica in case your iPhone battery dies.
Even in the days before Power Reserve Express Mode iPhone, this was, and is, completely wrong ‘advice’ that will get you in trouble at the transit gate. Never forget the golden Suica rule: the same Suica card used to tap in must be used to tap out to complete the transit. If the Suica you started out with cannot be used at the exit gate, for whatever reason (lost card, dead device, etc.), the gate alarm will sound and you must pay full fare in cash.
I’m sure there will always be people who believe that plastic Suica is somehow ‘safer’, and that’s fine, but the reality is that with JR East reducing station staff wherever they can, finding real people to deal with plastic card problems will be more of a hassle than it already is. In the future JR East will tell plastic card users to use online assistants at station kiosks. In the end it will be faster to do it all on mobile.
The GIZMODO JP Suica hack piece is credited to ‘amino’ who doesn’t have clue about using Suica
Now that WWDC23 has come and gone, it’s time to take stock of what’s changed, and what’s not, for all things iOS 17 Apple Pay and Wallet. On the surface nothing much appears to have changed. Despite some lame last minute Wallet predictions from Mark Gurman, nothing much has changed in the iOS 17 Wallet UI, only a few modest tweaks for the iOS 17 life cycle. But just like iOS 15 Wallet, the fun stuff that tells us what’s happening and how it will play out over the digital wallet landscape in the years to come is hiding below the surface.
One of the things nobody has noticed or pointed out is the interesting connection with the iOS 17 compatible device list and the embedded secure element (eSE). Let’s take a look.
iOS 17 clears out the last of what I call embedded secure element v1 iPhone models, iPhone 8 and iPhone X, that do not support Power Reserve. The importance of Power Reserve eSE v2 cannot be overstated: eSE v2 handles Apple Pay transaction process completely independent of iOS. This is why iOS can power down into power reserve mode and let eSE v2 continue to handle Express Mode transactions. iOS 17 code no longer has to babysit the whole Apple Pay and Secure Element transaction process that previous iOS versions had to do for eSE v1 iPhones.
The Power Reserve ready eSE v2 iPhone list
With these legacy devices cleared out, we are left with eSE v2 iPhone models. What can iOS 17 do without all that legacy eSE v1 support cruft? A lot evidently, the old 16 Wallet card limit is gone, blown to bits. The sky is the limit, actually the eSE memory is the limit and that’s a lot because iOS 17 beta 1 users are adding way more than 16 Wallet cards, even more than 40. Card and payments ‘otaku‘ in Japan are rejoicing of course but why is Apple doing this? What’s the point?
Wallet needs secure element space obviously because Apple’s long term strategy has lined up big end user services encompassing payment cards, transit cards, digital keys for home, office and hotels, driver’s licenses and eventually all kinds of IDs including passports. Apple has also lined up merchant side services: Tap to Pay on iPhone, and now Tap to Present ID on iPhone. More on those in a bit. All of these services need eSE space. But there’s more: when iOS 17 beta 1 eSE memory becomes full and the user tries to add a new card, Wallet presents a new screen that displays a list of installed cards, how much memory they consume and the option to swipe delete cards:
From Twitter user @RayistaW: “iOS17 eliminates the fixed maximum number of cards. As long as the eSE has enough space, you can add unlimited cards. Moreover, after it is filled up, it will prompt the space required when adding a card and the space occupied by each card. Cards that fail to be added due to lack of space will be displayed when they are added next time.”Twitter user sk32751ibj posted screenshots of the iOS 17.0 error screen when attempting to add a Wallets card when the iPhone Secure Element is full. 39 Wallet cards in this case. It’s interesting that multiple FeliCa cards are grouped as one big virtual card, likely the same if the user has multiple VISA cards, etc.
If people are looking for evidence that Apple is preparing iOS for EU regulatory purgatory, this is it. Letting customers deal with an overcrowded eSE instead of iOS taking care of everything is…very un-Apple like. Let’s face it, who the heck knows or cares what a Secure Element is?
Apple has cleared the eSE deck for mandated ‘open NFC’ (which really means open eSE) regulation. Apple has an iOS that no longer has to manage and police eSE transactions, if so forced iOS 17 can step aside. Side loaded apps and similar can load whatever eSE applets they want and do their own thing. If they stomp on somebody else’s eSE applets and create mayhem at the payment terminal, well that’s the price of government regulations that remove Apple as eSE gatekeeper. Let users deal with the mess of managing which cards can be safely loaded into the eSE. Dear EU iPhone user…welcome to the Android NFC experience.
As for business as usual, iOS 17 Wallet has a few nice tweaks, the most important of which is multi-device provisioning. All the other ‘new’ features simply build off of what’s already there and are currently limited to the USA only Apple Card and Apple Cash. Multi-device provisioning is for everybody and will make life much easier. One of the easiest ways to see it in action is that Wallet Previous Cards will display any cards that are on one device but not the other. In the above example I have transit cards (Suica, PASMO) and e-Money card (WAON) on Apple Watch but not on iPhone. This is because stored value cards that keep the value on the card itself can only exist on a single device.
This has been caused a lot of confusion over the years for Apple Pay Suica users who assume that all cards work like a credit card. It also caused panic when users upgraded to a new iPhone. Pre-iOS 17 Setup Assistant would only transfer credit cards to the new iPhone but not Suica and similar cards. Thanks to iOS 17 multi-device provisioning, iOS 17 Setup Assistant seamlessly moves everything, credit cards, transit cards, keys, ID, *everything* so that you don’t have to.
Features like multi-device provisioning that make Apple Pay and Wallet so easy to use, are very hard to do. It is the greater sum of the parts that will keep customers, and developers too, choosing to stay with Apple as gatekeeper no matter how many rules the EU masters dictate.
Tap to Pay and Tap to Present ID are merchant targeted business services that showcase Apple’s integrated Wallet ecosystem built on the embedded secure element and secure enclave
The greater sum of parts will keep growing. Tap to Present ID showcases how Apple continually builds and integrates new services into a compelling whole. A slow burn focus thing. First we got ID in Wallet that was almost useless: Present your license or ID at a TSA checkpoint (do they really exist?). The first real use case arrived with iOS 16 ‘Share your license or ID in an app’ for in-app ID verification. And now we have iOS 17 Tap to Present ID which can transform any iOS 17 eSE v2 iPhone into a cheap payment and ID verification terminal. This combo has a lot of potential, if government ID issuing agencies get their act together, and other government agencies don’t get in the way.
Take Japan’s My Number ID (Individual Number Card) for example. The digital version finally launched on Android in May, after significant delays, but there are significant problems with the whole My Number ID card system. At the same time a different branch of the Japanese government wants to mandate open app stores. When Tim Cook met up with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida at the end of Apple’s Japanese charm offensive tour this past December, Tim gently waffled on committing to support My Number ID in Wallet due to unspecified ‘privacy concerns’. As in ‘you can forgot about privacy, security and My Number ID in Wallet if your government mandates side loading apps’.
Unveiling Tap to Present ID on iPhone now, well before the service actually launches ‘later this year’, works as a defense strategy against such government attempts to recklessly remove Apple as gatekeeper of their own devices. iPhone customers won’t trust using a digital ID unless they can be assured that Apple is playing gatekeeper. No Apple gatekeeper, no digital ID for the rest of us, it’s that simple. It all comes down to privacy and trust.
Apple Pay PASMO launched 2 months after the announcement. Same timing for Apple Pay ICOCA would be a launch in late June 2023
With the successful launch of Mobile ICOCA (2023-03-22) on Osaifu Keitai Android, it’s time to think about Apple Pay ICOCA that was formally announced today (2023-04-17) as coming ‘this year’. The timing depends on how quickly Apple tests and qualifies ICOCA for Apple Pay, and how badly JR West wants to launch.
And believe me, Apple Pay ICOCA needs to launch sooner than later because JR West will never achieve their stated goal of 5 million Mobile ICOCA users without Apple Pay. However the ICOCA service menu on Apple Pay might be different than Suica or PASMO. Apple Pay Suica works out of the box without Suica App or registering an account. Based on Mobile ICOCA on Android, Apple Pay ICOCA might require ICOCA App and a registered WESTER ID. Let’s take a look.
The WESTER ID requirement for Mobile ICOCA Android The Mobile ICOCA app for Osaifu Keitai Android allows registered WESTER users to add a new ICOCA, transfer a Mobile ICOCA card from another device, reissue a Mobile ICOCA (from a lost or damaged device). The key point is that: only registered WESTER ID users can create and add a Mobile ICOCA card. No plastic card transfers to mobile are allowed because they include unregistered cards bought at a station kiosk. Does this means ICOCA will not have native Apple Wallet add card support like Suica and PASMO?
Technically transit cards added natively in Wallet are ‘unregistered’ cards, but in reality they are registered to the Apple ID. A careful reading of JR West’s carefully worded Apple Pay ICOCA announcement states, “you can add your ICOCA card to Wallet.” JR West is playing it carefully, it might be native Wallet add, or transfer plastic card add. We won’t know until service details are released, but releasing a different and more limited service than Apple Pay Suica or PASMO won’t wash well with vocal Kansai area users or grow the ICOCA user base.
If JR West goes the WESTER ID requirement route, we’ll have the Japanese version of HOP or Ventra. When you take a look at the transit card list in Wallet for the United States you’ll notice that Chicago Ventra and Portland HOP are not listed even though they appear on the Apple support page: Where you can ride transit using Apple Pay. This is because even though these cards can be added to Wallet, they have the same limits Mobile ICOCA does: only registered cards can only be added from an app, plastic card transfers to Wallet not supported.
JR West is doing this because they are positioning Mobile ICOCA on Android as part of the JR West WESTER portal service for earning WESTER POINT with transit use and purchases, and using WESTER POINT for recharge, eTickets, and more. You have to have a WESTER ID to add and use Mobile ICOCA. Why? I suspect it has to do with the end of paper ticket coupons, the old reliable buy 10 get one free. These were incredibly popular in the JR West Kansai area and said to be one of the reasons why it took so long for ICOCA to go mobile. Having WESTER and Mobile ICOCA as one package deal means JR West has the mobile equivalent of paper ticket coupons in place giving WESTER POINT rewards.
JR East’s focus on the other hand, is all about growing the Mobile Suica user base with JRE POINT as an option that adds value to being a Mobile Suica user. Yes JRE POINT and Suica offer the mobile equivalent of paper ticket coupons too, but the JR East service ecosystem is messy. Users have to register and juggle separate accounts for Mobile Suica, JRE POINT, Eki-Net, VIEW CARD and so on. JR West is shoehorning all of their services into one WESTER ID to streamline everything and make it easier for users.
Full embrace of Apple Pay drives growth One of the very nice things about Suica is that anybody can add it to Wallet and recharge it with Apple Pay credit cards. Apple Pay Suica Commuter Pass users can also renew passes in Wallet directly. Will ICOCA have the same? The announcement suggests so, a good sign because if JR West keeps Apple Pay at arms length and restricts all recharge and commuter pass renewal to ICOCA app, there will be no add money button in Wallet and no recharge with Apple Pay. This is what we see with Apple Pay Ventra and Apple Pay HOP: card issue, recharge, commute plan renewal is all restricted to registered account users in the iOS app. This kind of recharge limitation is a huge pain for Apple Watch users. We won’t know for sure until JR West releases clearly outlined service details.
JR East achieved 20 million Mobile Suica users because of their full embrace of Apple Pay and unregistered Mobile Suica cards. Users can add and use Suica on iPhone and Apple Watch right out of the box without a Mobile Suica account or an app. It just works. It’s the deal same for Mobile Suica on Garmin, Fitbit and Pixel Watch. The Mobile Suica service ecosystem may be messy, but it works on a huge variety of mobile devices.
The JR West approach is streamlined but does risk reducing the potential Mobile ICOCA user base if they restrict it to WESTER ID account holders and ICOCA App. Little details like full Wallet support makes all the difference with user growth. It all comes down to business choices: JR West wants WESTER ecosystem users, JR East wants Suica users, but how much does JR West want Mobile ICOCA users? If JR West closes the door to unregistered Mobile ICOCA on Apple Pay and Wallet recharge, Kansai users who don’t need commuter passes or WESTER points will use Mobile Suica. Actually, they already are.
JR East embracing Apple Pay and native Wallet functions allowed them to grow Mobile Suica to undreamed of user growth.
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