Apple’s new tablets, the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, unveiled today, will support the Touch ID fingerprint sensor to enable users to make purchases in apps with Apple Pay, but not in stores with NFC.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, during a keynote to unveil the new tablets and other products, also gave an update for the tech giant’s NFC-enabled mobile-payments platform, Apple Pay, saying it will launch Monday in the U.S. both for purchases in stores and for in-app purchases online.
He added that more than 500 additional U.S. banks had signed up to support the payments service later this year or early next year. He didn’t name the banks, but most are small banks and credit unions. The new service will be enabled by a free software update to iOS 8 on Apple’s new iPhones and tablets.
This is the trend of consumer centric services, just like ApplePay or whatever mobile services we see today. On the positive side, Apple SIM concept could help MNO to optimise their subscriber management cost on SIM inventory and logistic, and focus themselves to their strength on Trust Brokerage and service planning. Apple becomes the distributor of the MNOs with new revenue stream. I believe if both parties (MNO and Apple) are able to adopt the mindset of Collaborative Business Model, then this is NOT a zero sum game. Consumers should also be able to enjoy the convenient the potential cost reduction from the MNO.
As for the SIM card vendors, the winners will be those that are able to see far with an ecosystem concept for SIM card and Smart Card.
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