Apple Pay or CurrentC?

(10/29/2014) Recently, CVS and Rite Aid announced that they will not support Apple Pay. The reason of not-supporting Apple Pay was revealed by New York Time: several retailers (including Walmart, Best Buy, CVS...) are working on a mobile payment platform CurrentC. Supported by these retailers, CurrentC (based on MCX, Merchant Customer Exchange) can save those supporting retailers 2%~3% of commission, which the retailers pay to credit card companies.

Well, it turns out that CurrentC is not that safe at all. They have sent out email to users that "unauthorized third parties obtained the e-mail addresses of some of you." (Did Apple do that? just kidding.) In Chinese, we have a saying "三個臭皮匠，勝過一個諸葛亮," which means "Two heads are better than one." However, if most retail heads are incompetent in data security, no matter how many head they form an alliance, they will not be competent either.

What platform will you support? I don't think CurrentC will back off anytime soon because 2% saving is too good to let go.

Apple's One SIM to rule them all

(10/21/2014) One thing inconvenient to cell phone users in the US now is that the cellular phone often works for only one or two wireless service provider. Your Verizon iPhone won't work on AT&T network. This limitation seriously damage the 'portability' of devices when users want to switch to another service provider for various reasons (fee, coverage, service quality...). Now Apple silently wants to remove this limitation and take back the control back to users (and Apple, of course).

Two month ago, if you buy an iPad and want to be always connected, you have to decide which wireless provider (AT&T, Verizon or Sprint...) you have. Now in Apple iPad Air 2 available in the US and UK, you don't have make this decision anymore since it has Apple SIM card embedded.

Apple says "you can choose the plan that works best for you — with no long-term commitments. And when you travel, you may also be able to choose a data plan from a local carrier for the duration of your trip"

Definitely the wireless service provider won't be happy about Apple's move since they will gradually lose grips on their users. It's a victory of Apple and Apple's users.