Tag: apple

Samsung and Apple may go head to head in the growing mobile market

In the race for dominance in the mobile commerce field, Samsung is beginning to catch up to Apple. Google, Samsung, and Apple have all established a foothold in the mobile payments field with their relatively new services. These services make it possible for consumers to pay for products using their mobile devices, both online and in physical stores. Mobile payments services are growing in popularity, especially in China, where both Samsung and Apple are currently vying for the favor of consumers in the competitive market.

Samsung Pay now has more than 5 million registered users

Samsung recently introduced its Samsung Pay service, which has already acquired a great deal of support from companies and consumers alike. According to Samsung, some 5 million people have already signed up for the service. Samsung Pay has processed more than $500 million transaction in the United States alone since launching in September of last year. The service is quickly closing in on Apple Pay, which has established a strong lead in the U.S.

Apple Pay still has a considerable lead over other services

Apple Pay has an estimated 12 million monthly users throughout the world, experiencing aggressive growth since its launch in October of 2014. The service recently launched in China following some resistance from Chinese banks and is expected to find some modest success. Many consumers have come to show support for Apple Pay because of its security features, which are also present in Samsung Pay and Google’s Google Pay service.

Innovative technology may help Samsung compete with others

While Apple currently holds the lead in the mobile payments space, Samsung is likely to catch up quickly due to the acquisitions it made last year. Samsung acquired LoopPay in 2015, whose technology mimics the magnetic stripes found on most conventional payment cards. This has made Samsung Pay more accessible to a wide range of consumers. Backed by this technology, Samsung may be able to establish a very powerful position in the mobile commerce market, which is expected to reach $142 billion by 2019, according to Forrester Research.

The iPhone maker is urging the American government to do this as it fights demands to unlock a San Bernardino shooter’s phone.

Apple Inc. is currently in the middle of a high profile battle in mobile security and encryption, as the company resists the demands being made by the government of the United States, in which the tech giant is being ordered to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

The company has now urged the American government to create a panel of experts or a commission for this subject.

The purpose of the commission being requested by Apple, would be to discuss the implications of this type of order on national, personal and mobile security, among other issues and freedoms. On the company’s own website, it shared a post entitled “Answers to your questions about Apple and security,” in which it said that “Apple would gladly participate in such an effort.” The iPhone maker went on to explain that “the best way forward would be for the government to withdraw its demands” to unlock the smartphone.

The FBI made the request of the company to break the mobile security barriers in the device, as a part of their investigation.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says that it wants to be able to access the contents of the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook as a part its examination of the evidence that was created before the shootings in San Bernardino. Apple is being ordered to disable some of the passcode protections on the device.

On December 2, Farook and another man, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California, murdering 14 people and leaving another 22 people injured. A police shootout ensued and both attackers were killed.

In response to the demands that it has received, Apple has said that, while it is technically able to unlock the iPhone through the creation of a new operating system, a precedent could be established that might lead to dangerous situations in mobile security and privacy freedoms. It underscored the fact that it has never unlocked a smartphone on behalf of law enforcement, though it has previously extracted data from one of its devices that had been operating on an older version of iOS when following a “lawful court order.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has now filed a motion to attempt to force Apple’s compliance in breaking through the mobile security of the device and unlock the iPhone.