Regardless of whether it is founded on anything real, Apple's perceived security advantage IS a concrete advantage. Merchants know that consumers are substantially more likely to adopt Apple's platform than competitors and so getting the virtuous cycle of increased users and increased points of payment is much easier for Apple to get started.
It's just semantics, but I would argue that Apple has an unmatched level of trust with the consumer, and it's not founded on either marketing or perceived security. Whatever the source, Apple can change consumer behavior like no other company right now. If they launch some more duds like Ping or MobileMe, that might change, but for now, Apple's biggest advantage in payments is if they build it, they will come.
Of course, it helps to launch with a show of strength, so I hope to see legacy iphones supported, which only happens if the underlying technology is bar codes or BTLE. |
