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Apple Working on Special Version of iPhone for Japan, Will Include FeliCa Tap-to-Pay Chip
Apple is developing a version of the iPhone for Japan that includes one of Sony's FeliCa chips to enable contactless transit payments, reports Bloomberg.
FeliCa is a tap-to-pay format developed by Sony and built into cards that are used to access Japan's railway and bus system. FeliCa is faster than Apple Pay, allowing transactions to occur in a fraction of a second, which makes it suitable for use in a fast-paced transit environment. It's also able to store e-money that can be used at vending machines and cafes across the country.
Apple plans to work with several transit card providers to create virtual versions of FeliCa transit cards that can be stored in the Wallet app on the iPhone and used in place of a physical card.
The FeliCa payment feature could be available as soon as next month, built into the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus that Apple plans to unveil in early September. Bloomberg warns, though, that Apple could potentially delay the feature's launch until next year should discussions with Japanese payment networks fall through.
FeliCa is a tap-to-pay format developed by Sony and built into cards that are used to access Japan's railway and bus system. FeliCa is faster than Apple Pay, allowing transactions to occur in a fraction of a second, which makes it suitable for use in a fast-paced transit environment. It's also able to store e-money that can be used at vending machines and cafes across the country.
Apple plans to work with several transit card providers to create virtual versions of FeliCa transit cards that can be stored in the Wallet app on the iPhone and used in place of a physical card.
The FeliCa chip will let customers in Japan store their public bus and train passes on their iPhones. Users would then be able to tap their phones against the entrance scanners instead of using physical cards. While the FeliCa chip is the standard technology underlying the service, there are several different providers of transit payment cards based on the type of transit and areas within Japan.The addition of a FeliCa chip to the iPhone will help Apple make inroads into the mobile payment market in Japan, which is dominated by the standard. 1.9 million payment terminals in the country have already adopted FeliCa and FeliCa terminals saw 4.6 trillion yen ($46 billion) in transactions in 2015.
The FeliCa payment feature could be available as soon as next month, built into the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus that Apple plans to unveil in early September. Bloomberg warns, though, that Apple could potentially delay the feature's launch until next year should discussions with Japanese payment networks fall through.
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36 months ago
Seems like they excercised some common sense with this decision, not even attempting to try and crack the mobile payment market in Japan without conforming some. Not a bad move, just seemingly an unusual one for them.
36 months ago
My question is how fast is this system? Apple Pay is pretty damn fast and they say this is faster!???
The transaction is completed in 0.2 seconds. In Tokyo at the train stations, if you take more than a second to go through the gate you hold up the line. The cards are created so that you do not have to stop walking and you can even run through the ticket gate because of how quickly the card is read.
This is great news if true, and would be the only thing that compelled me to upgrade from my current 6 Plus to a 7 if introduced in the new models this year.
36 months ago
Looks like they could develop the similar thing for Australian banks to have their own Pay systems, all banks for that matter - wonder why Japan's getting such special treatment?
36 months ago
yes. yes. yes.
thank god.
in japan there are two mobile payment systems and both have 100% market saturation.
apple stood no chance of getting its general NFC terminals in place.
since this means that apple will use Felica system in Japan, this also means that no other company would be able to get into Japan without doing the same thing.
buy yr apple stock now.
because sales will explode once this happens.
That's incorrect. There are a lot more than two mobile payment systems in Japan. Excluding ones like ID, WAON, and Edy which are used to make payments in stores, for transportation there are: RapiCa, TOICA, ICOCA, Nagasaki Smart Card, passca, and PASPY, to name but a few.
[doublepost=1472175347][/doublepost]Many phones in Japan have had the FeliCa chip in them for around 12 years. It's about time Apple caught on.
36 months ago
Looks like they could develop the similar thing for Australian banks to have their own Pay systems, all banks for that matter - wonder why Japan's getting such special treatment?
It's a totally different scenario. The IC readers here are all based on a different standard, so even with a foreign credit card from an Apple Pay country, I can't use the terminals here. And those terminals are basically everywhere. On the other hand, as the Australian POS terminals use the standard, I could use Apple Pay there before it launched in that country.
Japan is a huge market for Apple (much bigger than Australia), and FELICA based payment is almost everywhere. And they aren't about to start supporting the international standard. Makes perfect sense for Apple to support FELICA. Personally I can't wait!
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