Natalie Gagliordi reports for ZDNet a few of the details made public about Apple Pay–the tech company’s foray into payment processing. What you need to know:
– Apple Pay will roll out Monday, October 20
– Apple has signed 500 banks to support the platform
– Banks have not been named yet
– Apple Pay utilizes NFC for contactless payments.
– Apple Pay also features a dedicated chip called the Secure Element
– This allows it to integrate with Apple’s Passbook app, which launched with iOS7
– Users will be able to set up and control their wallets via their iTunes accounts
So how will it work? Last month for CNet, Sharon Profis summarized that Apple Pay would be contactless and featured a degree of tokenization:
At the register, you’ll tap the top edge of your phone to the credit card terminal, which is where the NFC chip is located. Your iPhone will then prompt you to scan your finger on the Touch ID button. The phone will then access the secure element to generate a random, 16-digit number that mimics your “real” card number. That information gets sent back to the NFC chip, which sends it to the POS. From there, the payment finishes processing as usual.
When it launches Monday, Apple Pay will accepted everywhere from Panera Bread to Foot Locker.
