Sarah Halzack describes the difference between between ApplePay and a competing system, CurrentC, due to roll out next year:
Apple Pay’s system relies on near-field communication chips, allowing users to wave their smartphones in front of a reader and confirm the purchase with a fingerprint scan. CurrentC, on the other hand, will require shoppers to use their smartphone’s camera to take a picture of a code generated by the retailer, a series of steps that may feel slower and more complex to consumers than Apple Pay.
Say what? You have to pull out your phone, open the CurrentC app, and take a picture of a QR code that’s displayed on the merchant’s screen. If that doesn’t work, you have to manually enter a numeric code.
And this is faster and more convenient than swiping a debit card because….what? Am I missing something here?
