Kate MacKenzie, writing for Mac360:
Apple’s customers use their devices more than other devices. We use Mac, iPhone, and iPad more. We buy more. We buy and use more applications. We take more photos and movies. We buy and listen to more music.
The Apple Usability Syndrome is born from one basic fact. Apple’s products– all of them– are more usable, friendlier, simpler, and more effective for customers than are competitors. Usability matters, folks.
This is an interesting argument, that Apple users tend to use their devices more than Android users use theirs. Not sure if this is true, but for the sake of argument, let’s accept that and move on:
One perfect example of the usability syndrome is in the most recent Apple product that has failed to excite the critics but has customers feeling pleased and has started a trend among retailers. Apple Pay. Name another mobile payment device (not your credit card; we’re talking high tech here) that gets used more than Apple Pay.
And:
Here in Brooklyn where I live and in Manhattan where I work Apple Pay is growing in usage, both among merchants and Apple customers. It’s no longer rare to see Watch being used to buy something at Macy’s or Starbucks or McDonalds or a gazillion of the merchants that line the streets.
What is rare is to see someone using Samsung Pay or Android Pay, yet both have far more devices, and, ostensibly, a gazillion more users than anything with an Apple logo on it. What gives?
It’s the Apple usability syndrome. We Apple customers actually use our products; Mac, iPhone, iPad, Watch, or whatever.
Anecdotally, I find this believable. I have seen a number of people use Apple Pay and I’ve never seen anyone use another device-based payment method. I’ve never seen Samsung Pay or Android Pay used in the wild. Do Apple device users use their stuff more than Android users?
I used to have an Android device, before Apple. I would spend a lot of time tweaking stuff, like home screen replacements, themes, and things less fun, like battery management programs, googling why my phone had poor battery, etc…
I say yes for the simple reason it must easier and safer than swiping, signing for a purchase!
First off, let me say that I know my comment is anecdotal.
I have seen non-apple pay phone purchases happen three times – once, successfully with a Blackberry at Tims and then two more times in other places with samsung devices. Both unsuccessfully with one of those times the patron not being able to make the purchase at all since he didn’t bring his wallet.
That being said, since I am in Canada, I don’t see very many Apple pay transactions either.
Apple Pay may be an accidental success considering Apple’s software trends lately. It’s seamless and just works. There are still a few gotchas that have nothing to do with Apple. For example, my grocer surprisingly accepts Apple Pay. However, the way it’s implemented still requires other interactions with the pay terminal. These have more to do with store policy than with the tech involved.
OTOH, the liquor store is a smooth transaction with no additional requirements outside of going home and enjoying the weekend.
If you use the “hierarchy of events” theorem (which you definitely should;) to explain the situation, everything becomes clear.
Basically, in order to use a service, a user goes thru stages:
1. know about it, to maybe then…
2. understand what it does/how it works, to maybe then…
3. find the service compelling enough, to maybe then…
4. be confident in the service’s capabilities, in order to maybe then…
5. have the conviction that the service is safe/reliable/good enough to maybe then…
6. try it, and maybe then…
7. find the experience positive enough to adopt (or buy, or hire) the service.
Stumble at any of the “maybes” and your stuck.
We already know that users of iOS devices have far greater Web usage stats than users of Android devices, don’t we? Unless that’s dramatically changed, it would seem a good indicator of how usability actually affects other usage.
Apple Pay is accepted at my wife’s McDonald’s, where I buy my morning coffee if she’s starting unusually early or we were otherwise pinched for time and I didn’t get a pot made.
Despite having “only” an iPhone 5 (unsupported by Apple Pay!), I have an Apple Watch. Paying is as simple as tapping the side button twice and holding the watch to the terminal.
Since they started accepting this, I try to use it every time. There’s a few reasons I like it:
So I’m actually willing to compare it to my credit card, not just other mobile pay systems. 🙂
its not accidental.
and there is no “apple software sux” trend. you just have 100x the feature complexity and 1000x the number of people using them, resulting in more blog posts about how apple software sux.
If nothing else, Apple’s really good at nailing discoverability. When you set up your device, you’re offered Apple Pay. If you use Wallet, you’ll repeatedly see Apple Pay. If you use a mainstream bank, they’ve promoted the hell out of Apple Pay. Many of your apps have undoubtedly mentioned adding Apple Pay in their release notes. That’s a lot of touch points to make customers aware of a great feature and easily enable and encourage its use.
And in Samsung’s case, they’re facing a strong perception issue in addition to their crappy UX. Apple’s customers—new or long-term—generally trust Apple and believe their pro-customer, pro-privacy stances. If nothing else, it’s easy to get someone to convert their iTunes/App Store saved card into an Apple Pay card. The first hurdle to getting someone to use Samsung Pay is getting them to believe their card data is safe with Samsung. That’s a tall hurdle when those same Galaxy phones were just subject to a major security flaw (and that’s to say nothing of savvier users’ existing concerns about the Android ecosystem generally).
I agree with the premise but, assuming it’s true, why aren’t they leveraging these advantages into becoming a goliath in services?
Why isn’t Apple working much harder and faster to become part of the mobile commerce backbone for retail? They seem content to arrive in the future just slightly faster than Android.
Why aren’t they selling merchant hardware, software and services to move retail into this vision they have? Or acquiring a Square to expedite the mass of small businesses toward implementing Apple Pay solutions? There have been no (known) acquisitions in this area. They seem content to let others tackle this and ultimately benefit.
They have this advantage but seem content to just sell devices that people then populate with Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft services because those companies provide a cross-platform solution.
“Why isn’t Apple working much harder and faster to become part of the mobile commerce backbone for retail? They seem content to arrive in the future just slightly faster than Android.”
Apple want to control the whole she-bang. They’re not good at co-operating with others.
“Why aren’t they selling merchant hardware, software and services to move retail into this vision they have?”
I don’t think they are interested in that.
“They have this advantage but seem content to just sell devices”
Because device is their core product?
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I’ve seen Android Pay used in Canada by an American colleague. It was pretty seamless. As EMV rolls out in the US you’ll see more contactless payment which includes Android Pay and maybe others.
I think Apple Pay will dominate contactless payment in numbers, much in the same way Apple dominates mobile commerce. Basically punching well above their weight again. Usability, awareness of owners, historical patterns of behavior by iPhone users, and trust of Apple by their customers will all support higher usage.
Square is rolling out Apple Pay/EMV now. Apple will sell these in their stores. Win-win.
https://squareup.com/contactless-chip-reader