Om Malik wrote a great piece on the iPhone 6 Plus and also reflected on the upcoming Apple Watch and thoughts on Apple Pay:
It looks like Apple is going to ride the iPhone wave for a while, perhaps right through the launch of the Apple Watch, which I suspect is going to provide the big lift.
Agreed.
That said, I am not bullish on the watch, mostly because when I saw it, the software looked incomplete by a mile. It lacked that usual Apple software pop!
There is no doubt that when Apple introduced the watch, the software wasn’t ready. It’s ready now.
I wish Apple had spent more time making Apple Pay realize its true potential, because it could change how we purchase and thus define a new era for the company.
I believe they are, in the background. Typically, Apple will release something slowly and then it takes off. This is exactly the strategy I see Apple taking with Apple Pay—under promise, over deliver.
Just like it’s difficult to let Apple’s foray into television “realize its true potential” until the content providers get on board, Apple Pay’s true power will be realized when hold-outs like MCX get on board. When Apple controls everything – like with the iPad – the version 1 results are amazing. When Apple doesn’t have tremendous leverage – like with the iPhone (initially) and the AppleTV – “amazing” takes buy-in, which takes time.
Apple Pay has the same problem that any new platform has. You need to role it out for developers to see it and you need developers to role it out to users.
Apple did a great job at getting many of the large banks and credit card companies on board, as well as a decent set of merchants. More merchants will role out as soon as they get the right equipment installed for it, etc. Except for the MCX group because that’s about being anti-credit card.
All in all, it seems to have been a pretty clean and robust rollout since it’s only been out about 4 months.
Next, Om will be criticizing a two month old baby for not being able to program yet.
“I wish Apple had spent more time making Apple Pay realize its true potential …”
Om. Dude. It’s still early days, Apple Pay has only been enabled for 3 months, let’s talk again in say 5 years. By then we’ll see how the contactless payment landscape has changed.
And I’ll bet a dollar that MCX will have launched, failed, and been totally forgotten within 5 years.
Om should have stopped when he was ahead. Apple laid the groundwork for Apple Pay years in advance with Passbook and Touch ID, and it hasn’t even come to your wrist yet.
I think Om is being really unfair. Everyone was telling Apple they’re doomed unless they make bigger phones. So Apple makes bigger phones and now they’re doomed because that one product is too successful and they’re too reliant on it? Basically dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t.
When he says “change how we purchase” what exactly does he mean? Does he want Apple to become a bank? Does he want to get rid of credit cards and have everyone using virtual currency? Tim Cook was asked about this and he said people love their credit cards. So wave one of Pay is just making that experience better. On the earnings call he did hint at Apple looking at other things like rewards and person to person transfers. I’m sure there’s a lot more Apple is working on in this space. Baby steps, and getting each step of the way right, is the way to go.
I doubt the software is ready now: They still have months to improve it! 🙂
“I wish Apple had spent more time making Apple Pay realize its true potential…”
The iPhone’s initial goal was 1% of the US phone market. I think it’s got that by now. 😉
I wonder what the initial goal of Apple Pay is and what that would look like 2 months in? Supported by the majority of major banks in the US? Able to support the emerging pay systems being deployed this year? Works seamlessly on the new iPhones? Easy to import existing credit cards? Have a developer API available?
Eh, Apple Pay has already altered how I pay. Two of the three grocery stores I shop at accept it. Walgreens does. Home Depot does. No, that’s not all of my purchasing, but I now favor the places who can take Apple Pay over those that can’t or won’t. Now, project that forward two years when the iPhone 8 is current and there are 200m or more iPhones and millions (tens of millions?) of Watches and more places that accept Apple Pay and NFC in general.
This article worries me much more than even a somber Charlie Wolf analysis. Om tends to “get” Apple and how it does things. I expect Travis McCort or Henry Blodget to make incorrect conclusions, but Om is the type to see where Apple is skating to, and understanding that’s where the puck will be. That he doesn’t see a parallel between iPhone January 2007 and iWatch October 2014 is kinda shocking. Even more so that Apple, the 650lb gorilla in the payment industry’s parlor that it is, can’t change everything in a couple of quarters. I hope he’s just having an off day from the high blood sugar.