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Could not resist it: Apple’s recent product launches represent a good example of how giants can trip (and, despite of that, still become stronger in some areas).
Jobs era has ended It was “not wise” to launch - at the same time - iPhone 8 and 10 on the product’s tenth anniversary. Hard to see any logic to it. Something like X and X Pro would have worked much better - especially if X was priced below the main competition. Apple could have cornered that market segment - and exploit the fact that it’s very hard to shift iPhone users to another brand once they experienced the beauty of iOS.
That ugly “notch” on iPhone X signifies, sadly, the end of the “Jobs” (and Ivy, for that matter) era. Whom are they kidding, touting the diagonal size of a “dented” display?.. Steve would have never let that happen. Ditto.
The King of UA It still remains to be seen whether FaceID is any better than TouchID (my guess - it IS). However, Apple has indeed been driving and setting the global "gold standard" when it comes to ubiquitous user authentication (UA). Yesterday, I paid for a tank full of diesel with Apple Pay. Diesel is not cheap in the UK, so we are talking about a three-digit sum. Yet the transaction did not require PIN - just TouchID. The same rule applies to ApplePay when used for online payments - which are, to the best of my knowledge, are treated as "cardholder present".
FaceID will make user authentication even more intuitive and transparent, driving the adoption - at both sides (user and corporates) - through the roof.
QR is ON It was NFC that drew a lot of attention when iOS 11 was released (iPhone 10 with iOS 11 - what have Apple's marketing people been drinking lately?), yet there was another new feature which went almost unnoticeable - QR. I’ve been saying for years that lack of QR capability within the standard camera interface makes it hard for QR to shine. The need for a dedicated app made adoption difficult. That will change now. If implemented correctly, QR can be more powerful than NFC: real-life speed is similar; QR can be made secure; you can scan QR from a greater distance; QR can be printed; importantly, QR works online.
To sum it up, my dusted-off crystal ball shows bright future for multiple interfaces when it comes to payments (including PSD2), both online and offline: NFC, BLE and QR (Google recently introduced to masses “digital QR” - rather cute). Biometrical user authentication has entered the mainstream and its adoption is about to explode. PIN could soon become RIP - since user authentication becomes mobile-centric, a transaction can be completed on a mobile too.
Off to polish my crystal ball some more.
This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.
Joris Lochy Product Manager at Intix | Co-founder at Capilever
10 February
Alex Kreger Founder & CEO at UXDA
Jamel Derdour CMO at Transact365 - www.transact365.io
Ben O'Brien Managing Director at Jaywing
07 February
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