Cheap NFC Payment Bracelet Works "As Effectively" As Apple Watch
This wasn’t the cheap-and-cheerful wrist accessory that fans were used to wearing to show their loyalty and nothing more. It was a digital wallet that paid for goods with a contactless payment chip, and did so as effectively as the Apple Watch can with its Apple Pay service…
Season ticket holders can now go on the team’s website, plug in the 8-digit code on their band, add their credit card details (right now it only works with MasterCard) and can put up to £20 (about $30) in credit on the wristband at a time. …
It’s the same kind of payment functionality offered by the Apple Watch which starts at $349, but at a fraction of the price. …
They can spend up to 20 euros with a tap, or more if they entered their pin number too. The bands are water proof and come in different colors.
In addition to being a pre-loaded, debit-like system capable of working with only a single provider, these bands also differ from Apple Watch in their total lack of secure authorization, which is kind of the whole point of Apple Pay. Apple Pay wouldn’t be notable or attractive if it was simply convenient without being secure. Instead, it mates increased convenience with increased security, and that makes it compelling when compared against traditional cash or card methods. (Whether you wear that access point on your wrist or in your pocket hardly matters from a usability perspective, albeit Apple Watch has the benefit of opening up Apple Pay to previously unsupported iPhone generations.)
I understand the need to tie anything and everything into the Apple Watch hype train, but willful claims that the payments powerhouse is no more useful than a wrist-mounted E-Z-Pass for stadium brats and pretzels and pints (however many of those you can actually get for $30 these days) is disingenuous. I mean, here’s the title of Olson’s article: “These Free, Throwaway Wristbands Have All The Payment Magic Of The Apple Watch.” Give me a break.
That said, Apple Pay (and by extension, Apple Watch) will almost certainly make the old NFC dongle new again, as more and more points of sale jump on the bandwagon and accept wireless payments.
[Image via Forbes]