Tag: apple mobile commerce

While the service can be used at a physical store checkout counter, early adopters are using it as they shop over smartphones.

Mobile payments have been an area of considerable controversy, as some feel that this technology will rapidly take over plastic debit and credit cards, while others doubt that it will go anywhere because people are content with what they have, but where most seem to agree is that no matter the direction of the future, Apple Pay will be at the head of it – at least throughout the early years.

Now that the iPhone’s mobile wallet is available, the trends and potential for this type of service are becoming clearer.

So far, Apple Pay has shown to be quite popular among early adopters. The launch was fairly recent, as it occurred last October, and the number of people who have the necessary equipment to actually use the service is limited – as only the latest versions of the iPhone (6 and 6 Plus) are compatible – but so far, the owners of those devices who have enabled the service are using it. That said, they’re not necessarily making their purchases with their mobile wallets while in physical shopping locations. Instead, they are making m-commerce purchases with their iPhones.

This has caused many retailers to ensure that they have an Apple Pay option on their only checkouts.

Among those that have been benefitting from Apple’s mobile wallet is SeatGeek, a search app for sports and concert tickets. Its checkout screen has been updated to accept payments via iPhone and it has now seen an increase in its conversion rates by 30 percent. Those that have been specifically through Apple’s wallet have represented an 80 percent increase.

According to Jack Groetzinger, the cofounder of SeatGeek, Apple’s mobile wallet “is convenient in a physical store, but you’re never going to Wal-Mart because of Apple Pay. It’s a triviality.” That said, he pointed out that “But you are going to buy tickets on SeatGeek with Apple Pay in a case where you wouldn’t have otherwise. That’s huge.”

Indiegogo, the crowdfunding site, has seen a similar type of response, according to its chief executive officer, Slava Rubin. That site’s campaigns have seen conversion rates increase by 2.5 times when using the Apple wallet for the transaction. Rubin saw that type of mobile payments as an important opportunity for the site and has included it on the site since it was first launched.

Wall Street didn’t appear to be all that affected following the announcement of the ebook settlement.

It has now been reported that Apple has come to an m-commerce settlement when it comes to issues involving accusations of collusion between the company and book publishers in order to fix the prices of ebooks.

When all was said and done, it was announced that Apple had agreed to a settlement of $450 million.

Though it had been expected by some that investors on Wall Street would shudder when they heard about the considerable m-commerce settlement payment that Apple had agreed to make, the reality of it was that they seemed rather unaffected by it. In fact, as a whole, it appears as though those investors have made the group decision to simply look the other way and allow the settlement to occur and be tucked away in the past.

If one was not watching the m-commerce news, it would appear as though nothing had happened.

Some experts in the industry are now predicting that this mobile commerce settlement has held a buy and not sell position, and that the investor reactions could be seen as a confirmation that this could be the strategy to take.

It is clear that investors are taking this opportunity to place their focus on the company’s power for long term earnings instead of falling victim to anxieties that are caused by headlines that appear much more dramatic than they may actually be.

Apple also received a bit of a hand in putting any of the negative news behind it and causing investors to look ahead to a more positive future when they took the opportunity to announce that they had entered into a new partnership with IBM in order to ensure a much more solid entry into the enterprise environment.

When all was said and done, while a settlement of $450 million may sound considerable, when it comes to the size of the m-commerce at Apple and the direction that the company appears to be taking, it does, in fact, appear to be easy to think of the situation as little more than an uncomfortable pimple that will heal up and be entirely forgotten in the future.