6 Wearable Pay Devices You Should Be Aware Of
Wearable devices are transitioning from being geek-favoured items into the main stream. At this point, along with the growing popularity of the wearable devices, we face increasing approval in mobile payments as well. Hence, it is only but natural to expect boundless and exciting evolution when it comes to wearable payment devices.
It appears that it is a normal evolution to witness how the matured mobile payment technology merges into the devices that we wear. After all, mobile payments are all about improving anybody’s payment experience. So what better way to pay with something that you wear unlike with a device that needs pulling out from your pocket/wallet.
Here’s a glance at 6 wearable payments players that you need to be aware of:
1. Apple Watch
Apple Pay is in the market for quite some time, once the Apple Watch was released Apple offered payment capabilities on the watch, seems straight forward to just extend the mobile experience to the watch, however…not quite simple.
Warning – geek paragraph ahead:
A key element of the security mechanism of mobile payments rely on NFC technology which involves the Secure Element component. The Secure Element is a piece of hardware that locks the sensitive information like credit card details to a specific device. It means that Apple had to create additional secure element on the Watch on top of the NFC sensor.
From the user experience perspective, even if the user already had his card set on Apple Pay, another set of activities is required to operate it on the watch.
In addition, security layer of 4-digit password was added onto the watch as part of the security double layer philosophy of combining “Something I own” (Watch) and “Something I know” (password).
Overall though, the payment experience is simple and straight forward.
2. Samsung Gear S2
Samsung’s latest wearable device -- the Samsung Gear S2 now offers mobile payment capabilities. It is equipped with an NFC chip and is used as a part of Samsung Pay mobile payment solution.
It seems that both companies, Apple and Samsung are taking the same approach by offering payments on their wearable devices by relying on their existing Mobile Payment ecosystems. The user experience will be seamless, tapping the watch on contactless credit card reader at the cashier will do the job.
Contactless payment terminals are becoming the common practice among retailers globally and almost any new advanced model of payment terminals contain contactless reader built-in. Therefore, users enjoy wide range of stores that can accept mobile and wearable payments.
Samsung Pay is a mobile payment system which lets you buy goods by just tapping your phone against the card reader in a shop or restaurant instead of using your credit or debit card. Payments are authorised when the owner of the phone presses against the phone's fingerprint reader, or enters a PIN. It is currently available in South Korea and will be introduced in the US on 28 September. Samsung has suggested that it will expands to the UK, Spain and China in the near future.
Credit and debit cards from banks and card issuers who have partnered with Samsung can be uploaded to your phone, just as they can with Apple Pay.
3. Swatch Touch Zero One
It probably was no surprise when Swatch announced that it, too, wanted a piece of the wearables game and launched Touch Zero One smartwatch model.
The device aims to be a fashionable item geared towards sports and active lifestyle usage. The latest reports indicates that Swatch already has an existing payments deal in China, known to be its largest market, with China UnionPay. Reports also has it that a payment model equipped with NFC component are also on the works.
Swatch will be a new player in the game and will jump straight to wearable payment skipping on the Mobile Payment phase that other key players went through.
4. Alipay + Xiaomi
Alipay partnered lately with Xiaomi -- China’s leading smartphone vendor and maker of the Mi fitness band and later announced that they will enable mobile payments on the Mi fitness band.
When such giants partner to create something new, we should follow it carefully since those companies have the means, the know-how and the market size to make an effective solution that can make a huge difference in the market.
Alipay, China’s leading online payment system owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has a volume of over $150 billion, which means it consistently surpasses the volume of PayPal. Yet to know the acceptance network in the Chinese retailers environment and the ability of the solution to expand globally remains something to watch out for.
5. Disney MagicBand
The MagicBand is great example of a closed-loop wearable device that is used for payments within the Disney facility.
It seems that closed-loop environments are the most efficient way to launch a new payment method, same as the most popular mobile payment environment as Starbucks card on the mobile.
The MagicBand is a colourful wristband that is actually more than wearable payment device, it is all-in-one device that connects visitors to many activities that require authentication inside the Disney ecosystem such as to enter the various parks, unlock Disney Resort hotel room and buy food along with other merchandise. Their main selling point is how the device unlocks many other magical moments igniting anyone’s Disney experience doubling up as a key to a more carefree (equating to a happier) visit.
The MagicBand truly demonstrates the power of wearable payments by significantly improving the user experience and taking the full advantage of the device’s capabilities.
6. Jawbone + AMEX
This fitness tracker decided to add payment component to their wearable device, Jawbone’s new UP4 wearable fitness tracker will support contactless payments from American Express, based on NFC.
It will be interesting to see how the solution is adopted by the market and if other fitness wearable gadgets will jump into this pool.
I wonder if Fitbit or Nike Fuel Band has payment plans as well.
Yoav Elgrichi
Payment devices are now coming built in on your coat...Barclays are working on it.
Data engineer | Spark | Big Data | Azure Databricks
9 年So you are telling me that buying a watch that has a battery life of 18 hours is a smart move? A Casio watch has a 10 years battery life.
Co-Founder and CEO of Rider Dome
9 年The wearable devices will be a threat to the watch industry only if the watch companies will not be vigilant and bold enough to adopt themselves to the new reality where devices are expected to do more than one task. Same as our phones became smarter and allow more than talking, our TV became smarter and offer much more than dumb connectivity to cable company, same will be expected from the device that we wear on our wrist. The first wrist watch was invented 150 years a go by Patek Philippe, nothing in the watch functionality was changed from there, not sure this will be a sustainable situation, it is up to the watch companies to decide if they will re-invent themselves or stick to 150 years old tradition hoping that nothing will change.