This surely isn’t the first time that Apple (AAPL, Financial) has been threatened by a fellow rival. The legendary tech mammoth has fought many battles over the decades and its latest tussle with CurrentC is no exception. If you are a little confused about what’s going on between these parties, here is my report to address all your queries.
What is CurrentC?
Some of the biggest retailers in the US such as Wal-Mart (WMT, Financial), Kmart, Kohl’s, Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY, Financial) and several others have come together to form an online payment system that uses a mobile device as the mode of making payments. The application is called CurrentC, and the platform that’s making CurrentC happen is Merchant Consumer Exchange (MCX).
The consortium of retailers wish to implement the app all across the globe and thus benefit from the huge opportunities in the field of mobile payments. However, MCX’s efforts weren’t received well by the consumers after a security breach took place and the hackers were able to access confidential information. Following that users started posting negative reviews about the app all over the internet. The app competes directly with Apple Pay and Google (GOOG, Financial) Wallet.
Source: MCX
What has it done now?
MCX through its wide channel of partners is attempting to restrict the adoption of Apple Pay across different retail outlets and is threatening any retailer that is going against and accepting payments through iPhone maker’s offering. According to a recent report, retailers are shutting out Apple Pay by disabling the NFC readers. Big box retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy even confirmed the news that consumers won’t be able to use Apple Pay in any of their outlets. And this ban is not just again Apple. Even Google Wallet is facing the same issue.
MCX is very serious about the terms of the agreements with its channel partners (i.e. the retailers), and specifically mentioned that will pull out its support for those retailers who dare to defy the mighty MCX. There are even reports of MCX charging fine from retailers allowing NFC payments using Apple Pay and Google Wallet. To put simply, retailers will have to choose between Apple Pay and CurrentC. This is a little funny since CurrentC isn’t even out there while there are already millions of users for Apple Pay.
The primary motive that MCX has behind the move is to cripple Apple Pay’s popularity so that its CurrentC offering stays safe. If the retailers flush out Apple and Google from mobile payments, there won’t be any formidable competition left. The retail giants are selling goods and they believe the profit made in the process of selling items should come to them and not to any third party facilitating the payment.
Should this bother Apple?
The simple answers is No. The media and the NFC users are highly criticizing the moves adopted by MCX and the kind of negativity it’s experiencing will force the company to shift its approach, if not anything else. After all, angry consumers are not good for business! MCX management is putting in all its efforts to do damage control and uplift its lost reputation. MCX said that it’s not discouraging competition and only wants its app to get some breathing room and not get neglected. However, its actions speak otherwise.
Another reason why Apple shouldn’t be bothered with all this hue and cry is it’s a very strong brand by itself with millions of users across the world. The concept of mobile payments using NFC has been around for some time now. But until Apple introduced its own mobile payment offering, the method wasn’t that popular. In fact according to industry experts, mobile payment transactions are growing and more and more users are enjoying the experiencing of paying using Apple Pay.
