Tag: Express Cards with power reserve

Secrets of iOS 17 Apple Wallet: laying a foundation for open NFC

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.

The power reserve secure element iPhone difference
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 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.

Multi-device provisioning
Thanks to the streamlined, modern eSE v2, iOS 17 Wallet has an important tweak: multi-device provisioning. All the other ‘new’ iOS 17 Wallet 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 the Wallet user experience much easier, though most people will never know why. 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. The Previous Cards Wallet screenshot above shows the transit cards (Suica, PASMO) and e-Money card (WAON) on Apple Watch but not on iPhone.

Stored value cards keep the value on the card itself and 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 credit cards and be on all devices. Users panicked when they upgraded to a new iPhone but Setup Assistant didn’t transfer Suica: pre-iOS 17 Setup Assistant only transferred credit cards. Thanks to iOS 17 multi-device provision powered Setup Assistant, everything transfers seamlessly, credit cards, transit cards, keys, ID, etc., so that you don’t have to. Manually moving transit cards in Wallet is much simpler too as users don’t have to remove cards from the previous device anymore.

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 because nobody else offers the same level of integration across devices.

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.

iOS 13 Wallet Suica

The arrival of the Suica transit platform on the Apple Pay platform heralded a progression of innovation.

  • October 2016 : Suica is the first transit card on Apple Pay and also the debut of Express Transit and FeliCa
  • September 2017: global NFC Apple Pay arrives with iPhone 8/X/Apple Watch Series 3
  • September 2018: A12 Bionic NFC delivers Express Cards with power reserve and Background NFC tag reading
  • September 2019: direct creation of Suica in Wallet

The last one is a small step with big implications that people are only beginning to see. Instead of a plastic card that is read into Wallet or added to Wallet with a 3rd party app, Suica creation is now a basic function of iOS 13 Wallet that works with other Apple Pay cards from anywhere to add money. Suica is part of iOS. Think about that.

All of these developments have been driven by Suica, this is why Suica is the Apple Pay bellweather. Transit card creation in Wallet and adding money with Apple Pay cards from anywhere will undoubtedly be part of Apple Pay Octopus and migrate to other Apple Pay Transit cards over time. If you want to see where the Apple Pay puck is going, keep an eye on Apple Pay Suica developments. What arrives on Suica first becomes standard later.

Tweet of the Day: iPhone X user kisses NFC problem goodbye with iPhone 11

Well that’s a nice way to solve a iPhone X Suica NFC problem: upgrade to iPhone 11. Suica performance on Apple A12 Bionic and A13 Bionic iPhone models is a whole new level over previous models thanks to the Secure Enclave design that bypasses iOS for transactions and also gives us Express Cards with power reserve. I love that he loves Suica again and says goodbye to QR too.

Apple Global NFC Lineup 2019

With the removal of iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2, the new 2019 iPhone and Apple Watch lineup on the Apple Store is finally global NFC across the board. The Apple Watch Series 5 S5 chip did not gain ‘Express Card with power reserve’ or NFC background tag reading this time. The former would be a very welcome addition for the eternally battery challenged Apple Watch, while the later is necessary at some point if Apple wants to use the ‘yet to be formally unveiled’ NFC Tag Apple Pay to kick QR Code payment systems to the curb.

There is something missing in the lineup however: a low cost entry level global NFC iPhone that’s even lower than the price cuts Apple implemented with the 2019 lineup. As Ben Thompson of Stratechery explains in a great post:

That means that this year actually saw three price cuts:
•First, the iPhone 11 — this year’s mid-tier model — costs $50 less than the iPhone XR it is replacing.
•Second, the iPhone XR’s price is being cut by $150 a year after launch, not $100 as Apple has previously done.
•Third, the iPhone 8’s price is also being cut by $150 two years after launch, not $100 as Apple has previously done.

The rumored A12 chip iPhone SE2 may well be pie in the sky, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t market appeal for an inexpensive global NFC iPhone for places like Japan and Hong Kong. Those markets have highly integrated transit networks coupled with highly evolved transit card systems like Suica and Octopus. With both of these on Apple Pay there’s a good opening for a small SE size inexpensive global NFC iPhone, it would do very well.

UPDATE: What’s the best iPhone for Suica?
A reader asked for my recommendation of a good Suica use iPhone in the 2019 lineup. I do not recommend iPhone 8. The superior NFC and Suica performance, plus the Express Card with power reserve and background tag reading features of A12 Bionic and later is a huge leap over previous models. These enhanced NFC functions are important for new Apple Pay features yet to come. I think it comes down to a choice between iPhone XR and iPhone 11, and how long you plan to use it in Japan.

It’s also helpful to remember that 2019 is the last lineup of 4G/LTE only iPhone. I think iPhone 11 is better optimized for 4G in the long run as Japanese carriers start to switch over bands to 5G. There is also the much better camera to consider. Last but not least is battery. The power optimization of A13 Bionic is going to deliver much better battery performance over a longer period of time.

It boils down to this: if you plan to use the iPhone for 2 years iPhone XR is a good choice, if you plan to use iPhone for 3~4 years iPhone 11 is the better choice.

Tweets of the Week: Dear TfL please hurry up with that Apple Pay EMV Express Transit support

  • TfL says Apple Pay EMV Express Transit support is coming ‘very soon’

Some people are impatient. Especially at rush hour waiting behind iPhone users fumbling with Apple Pay Face/Touch ID authentication before going through crowded Transport for London (TfL) transit gates that are not that fast to begin with. Unlike native transit cards on Apple Pay like Suica and HOP, Apple Pay EMV Express Transit support is more complicated to enable because it involves not only fare system support on the transit agency end, it also involves banks and bank card hotlist management at the transit gate reader level, which is tricky because reader memory is limited.

I’m sure that TfL and fare system operator Cubic will get there eventually, but even so EMV Express Transit will never be as fast as native MIFARE Oyster cards. Unfortunately it looks like TfL will never bring those to Apple Pay.