Apple Testing Proximity-Powered Prototypes Today; Likely To Appear In iPhone 5

The only way this will be huge is if all mobile phone makers adopt the technology. Vendors are not going to buy expensive pay points just for 1 person a day. Thats if I understood how this works. Great idea, but it needs adoption from more than one mobile vendor.
 
w1z4rd, u r right again.

this was my stupidest post yet...
 
w1z4rd said:
The only way this will be huge is if all mobile phone makers adopt the technology. Vendors are not going to buy expensive pay points just for 1 person a day. Thats if I understood how this works. Great idea, but it needs adoption from more than one mobile vendor.
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You underestimate how popular iPhones are the US and UK, particularly in the major cities. Think about this: Starbucks charges about £3 for a large latte. Anyone who goes there daily can likely afford the latest iPhone (and from my casual observations, most have one). It would make sense for them to get this kind of paypoint. I can think of many other examples.

What worries me more is the security and privacy implications of this.
 
Yeah, from what i've heard iPhones are like Blackberries over here. so everytime you see a Blackberry here know that if you were in the US that would have been an iphone...
 
w1z4rd said:
The only way this will be huge is if all mobile phone makers adopt the technology. Vendors are not going to buy expensive pay points just for 1 person a day. Thats if I understood how this works. Great idea, but it needs adoption from more than one mobile vendor.
Click to expand...
Surely the paypoint technology can be incorporated into the card readers they all use - then this would simply be another payment option much like mastercard, visa, amex all sharing the same machine. The potential of 100million iTS users would be a compelling argument.
 
bwana said:
Surely the paypoint technology can be incorporated into the card readers they all use - then this would simply be another payment option much like mastercard, visa, amex all sharing the same machine.
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It would be great to have the technology and incorporate it into current systems. Imagine being able to walk passed a vending machine and picking what you want. In fact, this concept and this technology has being around for a while.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_23/b3936060.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vending_machine#Innovations

The potential of 100million iTS users would be a compelling argument.
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If the international banking and financial institutions pick this up I doubt it will hinge on the few iTS users. It would have to be cross platform or it will just become a gimmick in a few random places.
 
w1z4rd said:
It would be great to have the technology and incorporate it into current systems. Imagine being able to walk passed a vending machine and picking what you want.
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Now, imagine me walking past you with my mobile phone payment reader :)
 
bwana said:
An attack which could be thwarted by something as simple as a PIN?
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Of course. But a lot of what I've been reading about these contactless technologies suggest no second authentication factor. Which is why I brought it up.
 
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