The point of the comment, I believe, is application / function fragmentation - not saying that the banks should build their own phone. That would be insane. The likelihood is that most banks will add NFC payment to their apps and pull support from ApplePay. No more having all your cards in our Wallet.
With NFC, your smartphone is your wallet. YOURs, not Apple’s.
Let me picture you how these kind of leverage works against users, against third party business, controlling your material property … and if not regulated in the future it can control today imaginable things … against users.
There is an EU country that has been known by having one of the most advanced ATM and smartphone payment system in the west. The system is called MBWay. MBWay has an app that reads QRC codes with the camera and process the payment just with that info. All shops, from small to large super stores have a mobile ATM device that not only allows customer to pay with any of their debit or credit cards, but as well allows them to pay with the phone through by displaying a QRC. The App reads the QRC and upon users authorization it process the payment. The system is immediate, upon payment through your mobile the cashier ATM device immediately presents the payment as successfully. The system is so sophisticated that not only allows payment through QRC code, but also by simply giving your phone number to the cashier. The cashier inputs the phone number in her register, immediately you receive a notification on your phone … and through the app you can approve the payment … off you go. The system also allows users to register any cards … let’s call it a wallet. This has been going for over a decade.
Now NFC tech is a tad more convenient to you has a camera is not required, pointing aligning the phone to the QRC. MBway makes fully use of NFC on all smartphones, computing devices, but the iPhone.
Now have a look at the latest Apple conference. It’s about cinema mode, macro photography, super fast chips, device looks and design, 120hz display … Apple is compounding all this with digital and contactless payment …not to mention movies, series as well as health and fitness digital classes rooms, all of it. Some users don’t even know what Apple Pay is through this conference … nothing … they expect to be able to pay through their smartphone as transaction are moving to contactless.
Given this, users aren’t at all equipped to make the kind of choice you suggest. Neither they should really as the underlying business are very very different in their nature except for the requirement to to use of a computing device. In other words, the market is not equipped to make such decisions … there is a lot of leverage put in place by Apple from disparate business venues that collude yet not necessarily illegally within a device against other businesses, a lot, a lot, a lot.
What happens when leverage is kept on check? Do you use multiple banks? Why? Why using multiple banks and cards is smart, it’s competition, its good and protects your interests, …, but when it comes to Apple device is not good, its fragmentation, complexity, a privacy and security threat? The reality distortion field runs deep on this one.
This kind of value compound practices should rise suspicion from any reasonable person. Yet, in the end business is about public and business trust … hence the Anti Trust watch dogs exist exactly to oversee these kinds of forced business compounds that are actively being sought by big tech companies.
Cheers.
