AquaBit Spirals CEO Tomohiro Hagiwara responded to my post and took up the Softcream Cashless Index (SCI) challenge, promising to deliver a SCI score of “over 5” with his SmartPlate NFC tag payment service that works with Apple Pay and Google Pay:
watchOS 6 does not support Core NFC, but developers with a PassKit NFC Certificate from Apple can do lots of interesting things with Apple Pay NFC functions. Not that I’m asking Hagiwara san to divulge anything because PassKit NFC Certificates come with all kinds of non-disclosure conditions. But I do look forward to all the Apple Pay goodies coming with iOS 13. So far we have Apple Pay Octopus, Apple Pay Ventra, and Apple Pay myki on the transit side, there will be lots of new stuff on the NFC tag side. It would be great if SmartPlate can join the iOS 13 Apple Pay service rollout with backup from Apple Pay lead Jennifer Bailey at the Apple Event.
I look forward to reporting about the NFC Tag Apple Pay experience, and tasting great softcream along the way.
Apple Pay Suica Inbound first time user experiences are endlessly fascinating and educational. What’s obvious and works for people who live in Tokyo, isn’t the case for visitors. The Cup of Tech podcast from July 16 highlights the frustration of not being able to pay for everything with credit/debit cards, and a positive first time Apple Pay Suica use experience.
Episode 55 is out 🎉
This week we play a game where Zach and Kai have to guess if a news headline is real or if Malin made it up. Following this is a quick chat about the MacBook lineup.
The 5 minute mark is the tech low point: the state of cashless payments in Japan, but there is no color on what kinds of stores or businesses did not accept credit cards, and the comment about using PASMO and Suica for payment is weird: “It’s usually one or the other, it’s not both…. so I guess you have to have both.” I guess Zach never figured out that Japanese transit cards are compatible with each other.
The 6 minute mark is the tech highpoint: using Apple Pay Suica which Zach assumed he could not use because he read somewhere that, ‘you could only do this on phones sold in Japan.’ Fortunately he found out that his Apple Watch works with Apple Pay Suica and discovered the joys of using Suica Express Transit and recharging with Apple Pay on the go.
Both experiences make it clear that most people visiting Japan with global NFC iPhones are completely unaware of Apple Pay Suica and the ease of adding it to Wallet with the super simple SuicaEng app (which Zach highlights in a later podcast). I know because in 2 years of hosting a Apple Pay Suica guide, the page view analytics show that not many people are actively searching for Apple Pay Suica information in English.
JR East has done many Apple Pay Suica campaigns aimed at Japanese commuters, it is time that JR East and Apple create an English language Apple Pay Suica campaign for tourists that covers the ease of adding it and using it. Plaster the stations, wrap the trains. Waiting to do everything in 2020 for the Tokyo Olympics is waiting too long.
Update: I forgot to mention that a campaign from JR East and Apple can also help counter the 7pay QR Code security meltdown scandal that has poisoned contactless payments for everybody, even for FeliCa NFC, which has a long successful security track record and absolutely nothing to do with QR.
The service is aimed at customers who want to use Docomo, KDDI, SoftBank carrier plans for voice and SNS, and use the IIJ eSIM for cheaper monthly data. The produce is listed as ‘beta’ but IIJ is offering kickoff campaign incentives for signing up through August 28. Hopefully this is the start of more domestic eSIM offerings from Japanese MVNO operators and carriers.
There are a few remaining fuzzy spots in the Apple Pay Octopus saga. The story I broke back in December from trusted sources clearly had a Chinese New Year release target. The story went dark but busted wide open again with the Apple Pay JSON server code leak on June 25 that made it absolutely clear Apple Pay Octopus would finally arrive with iOS 13. Octopus Cards Limited (OCL) had no choice but to issue a premature press release stating ‘Apple Pay Octopus is coming, more details soon’ and nothing else.
Why the delay? It clearly was not the Smart Octopus in Samsung Pay exclusivity window that ended in December 2018. We may never know the whole story but I suspect that iPhone 7 FeliCa support is one reason for the delay, but certainly not the only one.
It makes sense for Apple and OCL to release Octopus that can be used on as many Apple devices as possible, the bigger the potential user footprint, the better. Octopus will work on Apple global NFC devices: iPhone 8/X/Apple Watch 3 and later. The important question is how badly do Apple and OCL want to add iPhone 7/Apple Watch 2 to the supported device list?
I previously wrote that Apple announced iOS 13 Core NFC enhanced tag support (FeliCa, etc.) for (all) iPhone 7 devices and later at WWDC19, but this does not sync with Apple Pay Suica device requirements: Apple is telling developers that all iPhone 7 models are good for NFC Read/Write FeliCa but telling customers that only iPhone 7 JP models are good for NFC card emulation FeliCa.
There are millions of NFC-F phones and devices outside Japan. That is because Type A and FeliCa are core requirements for NFC certification. If a phone supports NFC, it supports FeliCa. What is required to be compatible with most payment terminals in Japan is an Osaifu-Keitai provisioned secure element: that can be a SWP-enabled SIM card (not available yet), the Mobile FeliCa chipset with embedded SE, or an iPhone 7 provisioned for Osaifu-Keitai. The international iPhone 7s can do basic FeliCa read/write without encryption, because they embed a FeliCa-capable CLF <contactless frontend>. Apple has chosen not to provision them with Osaifu-Keitai keys, probably to avoid paying royalties to FeliCa Networks for each device.
This sparked some fascinating comments from Twitter user Lukas and, lo and behold, the very FeliCa Dude himself, an unexpected and pleasant surprise:
As always, the Dude delivers. Abide in the Dude, his knowledge and keen insight on all things NFC contactless and FeliCa is without peer. In a nutshell this means that OCL could offer Apple Pay Octopus on all iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2 devices and add them to the Global NFC Apple device list…but will they? If OCL and Apple can supply the necessary keys in the over the air (OTA) iOS 13 release via the in-house Apple FeliCa keys server, all the better. Either way I think we will find out very soon, possibly as a ‘Apple Pay Octopus coming to Hong Kong’ side mention in the Apple Card release press kit.
Now that the FeliCa Dude has checked in, I hope he can find an appropriate outlet, blog or otherwise, to enlighten us, whatever the occasion. He is a far better writer than I will ever be. I’ve learned a lot from his writings, I know a lot of other people can too. The world needs to hear from the FeliCa Dude, not my cheap imitation.
The crucial section: “In my opinion there are only three reasons that Apple should not be able to bring Octopus emulation to iPhone 7:
If they are unable to allocate IDm (card unique ID) values to these non-blessed devices because that process is tangled up with FeliCa Networks
If they shot themselves in the foot and disabled their ability to interface their secure element to the FeliCa CLF (contactless frontend) in the PN67V on those non-Japanese iPhone 7 devices because they didn’t see Octopus coming.
They don’t feel like supporting iPhone 7 at all, not even the Japanese models: each device has a different generation of secure element, and additional development/testing/certification work may be required for them. This is again a combination of what Apple is willing to do and on which hardware platforms OCL is willing to authorize Octopus to be emulated on. It’s nothing to do with FeliCa Networks or Sony.”
Lots of people in Japan and China wear face masks at different times of the year for flu season, pollen season, pollution season, etc. Whatever the reason, Face ID is simply not an option for these people. If it doesn’t work, why bother paying lots of money for a Face ID iPhone model? If Chinese manufacturers are selling under-display fingerprint sensor at a cheaper price than a Face ID iPhone, the choice for a face mask user is a no-brainer.
Whatever the outcome of the China market iPhone rumor, Apple going all in with Face ID has left money and marketshare on the table for others to grab.
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