Apple is almost always the company that is at the forefront of advancements in mobile technology and over the years, the company proven to be the frontrunner. According to a report on Bloomberg, Apple are now planning to equip future IPhone models sold in Japan with the tap to pay feature in order to help users in paying for usage of public transport.
The report states, "Apple Inc. is planning a new iPhone feature for Japan that will enable users to pay for mass-transit rides with their smartphones instead of physical payment cards. A future iPhone will include technology called FeliCa, a mobile tap-to-pay standard in Japan developed by Sony Corp., according to people familiar with the matter. The FeliCa chip will let customers in Japan store their public bus and train passes on their iPhones. Users would then be able to tap their phones against the entrance scanners instead of using physical cards. While the FeliCa chip is the standard technology underlying the service, there are several different providers of transit payment cards based on the type of transit and areas within Japan. "
The report went on to add why this was a necessary move for Apple, "The Near Field Communication technology powering Apple's mobile-payments service, Apple Pay, is prevalent in North America, Europe and Australia, but the FeliCa standard dominates Japan with a penetration of 1.9 million payment terminals, according to the Bank of Japan. The terminals handled 4.6 trillion yen ($46 billion) in transactions in 2015. Last year, there were 1.3 million NFC terminals in the U.S. and 320,000 in the U.K., according to research from Let's Talk Payments and the U.K. Cards Association. Apple intends to work with multiple transit card providers, one person said. The major players there include the Suica and Pasmo networks. Theoretically, virtual representations of the transit passes would be stored in the iPhone's Wallet application, said the person, who asked not be identified because the planning is private. The card companies sell access to transit services both as-needed and via monthly packages."
