Apple Pay is one of the most advanced payment system which is based on the digital wallet theme and one can use this option for any cards like Visa, Master Card etc. It uses encrypted single digital tokens to pass information from the mobile device to the shopping carts system. Each time the mobile uses a dynamic service code so that the information passed by the apple smart devices varies from transaction to transaction so that the shop keeper is not able to save the details sent. Apple Inc. proudly announced that the smart phones iphone6 and iPhone 6 plus are equipped with dedicated chips to secure each transaction and to store the payments and transactions. This service is now available in USA only and the company is planning to expand this feature to the users of some other countries very soon.
As of now this service is dedicated for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6plus users only. This Apple Pay service uses NFC (Near Field Communication) and this feature is equipped directly in the above mentioned (two) devices. Those who are using the previous generation phones or tablets like iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, iPad air2, iPad mini 3 etc. can use this feature but one need to buy Apple Watch which is equipped with NFC and this watch passes the information to the store or client concerned. Devices which are not compatible with Apple Watch are not at all suitable for this feature.
Users need to upgrade their device operating system to version 8.1 to enable Apple Pay. If you are using a phone of previous generation you need to manually enable it and whenever you are doing the transaction you need to wear the apple watch so that it enables the NFC communication allowing the users to pay virtually without any contact. As per present estimates more than 220,000 outlets are equipped with kiosks selling store devices which are equipped with NFC chip. This is compulsory to make a communication link between your smart device and stores buying equipment.
Apple made partnership deals and MOU’s with companies like Expressway, American Express etc. to make this thing possible and users who are using this method are extremely satisfied with it. Though some people complained about the security risks, Apple clarified that it took extreme care in design to implementation stages of whole project and one won’t face any security problems irrespective of the number of transactions as the company developed unique patented short range NFC communication system to do so and all the information is encrypted and unauthenticated persons can’t access it.
Apple is always first in coming up with new features and this virtual transactions with no contact is one such classic example and several other mobile operating systems are coming up with similar features. Apple is known for its highly advanced security features from long time and it is tough to breach them. The latest feature which is the result of years of hard work by Apple Inc. employees is has more scope for development.