My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: Apple supports PayPal for US and UK Item Purchases means Jamaicans can purchase Apple iPhones

Monday, December 22, 2014

Apple supports PayPal for US and UK Item Purchases means Jamaicans can purchase Apple iPhones

Apple is getting ready to launch the Apple Watch come the First Quarter of 2015, which admittedly I've spoken little about on my blog.

That's because it doesn't exist officially, making conversations about its specs purely speculative, other than the fact that it'll be using Apple Pay, Apple's NFC (Near Field Communication) powered Mobile Money Platform as described in the article “Apple takes NFC Mainstream on iPhone 6: Apple Watch with Apple Pay”, published September 9, 2014 11:02 AM PDT, by Marguerite Reardon and Shara Tibken, CNET News.


So when it was recently announced that Apple was allowing US and UK residents to pay for Apple products using their PayPal accounts as reported in the article “Apple Store now lets you buy items via PayPal”, published December 12, 2014 8:01 AM PST by Lance Whitney, CNET News, I was a bit take aback.

After all, potentially, PayPal is a competitor in the same Mobile Money space, as their PayPal App can utilize the NFC chips on most Google Android smartphones and make them able to pay for goods and services. Apple is just merely better at marketing the concept.

Paypal attacks Apple Pay – Apple and Paypal kiss and make up as Fappening haunting Apple

Paypal didn’t like this and so took a stab at Apple Pay in an ad in the Monday September 15th 2014 publication of the San Francisco Chronicle, stating that they represented the American People by protecting their money better than how Apple Pay as reported in the article “Apple Pay is as safe as your selfies, says PayPal ad”, published September 15, 2014 12:48 PM PDT by Chris Matyszczyk, CNET News.

This was clearly a veiled reference to the Fappening incident which resulted in the selfies of several well-known Celebrities being leaked into cyberspace with many turning to flip phones for comfort as chronicled in my blog article entitled “Celebrities Return of the Flip Phones - Flip-Force Awakening Thanks to Fappening Herald Smaller Smartphones and Smartwatch phones”.

However, this seems to be more of a business relationship than competition on the Mobile Money front. Granted this is nothing new as PayPal has always been an option to purchase Apple iTunes and App Store content along with your Credit or prepaid Debit Card. It was the purchase of physics goods i.e. Apple iPhones, Apple iPads, etc, that were Credit Card only....until now.

Apple supports PayPal for item purchases - How Jamaicans can purchase Apple iPhones online

Another plus for Apple aficionados; Apple supports PayPal Credit with no interest. Effectively, that high priced Apple iPhone which Europeans love so much base on the stats from Kantar WorldpanelComTech presented in my blog article entitled “Kantar Worldpanel Stats say British and Europeans love Apple iPhone 6 - China growing as Consumer Intelligence Report confirms iPhone 6 Plus unnecessary” can be purchased in 8 monthly installments, even if it costs more than US$250.

As a Jamaican, now is a great time to get yourself a PayPal account and use your Scotia VISA Debit Card to verify your account as described in my Geezam blog article “How to use Scotia VISA Debit Card Online”. As a Jamaica, you can't load money unto your PayPal Account from your Prepaid Debit Card.

But you can setup a mini-Website with a PayPal button so that you can pay money to yourself to spend online as well as use to collect money from online transactions as described in my blog article entitled “Payoneer, the US based Prepaid MasterCard Debit Card - How E-Commerce MSME's, Online workers and Reggae or Dancehall Artiste can receive money via PayPal and spend it in Jamaica”.

As we're in Jamaica, buying Apple iTunes and App Store content with PayPal was always possible. Just log onto the internet using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) or a Proxy so that it appears that you're in America as explained in my blog article entitled “Surfing the Internet Anonymously using VPN - How to use Streaming Set Top Boxes over VPN”.

But with this option to purchase an Apple iPhone, you'll need to use a Courier in order to have a US address so that you can make purchases online as explained in my blog article entitled “How to purchase items and subscribe to Magazines online and ship them to Jamaica”.

Thus with the VPN to mask your location and a US address at which to receive your goods, the item will come to you like any item purchased via a Courier as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “How to ship things to Jamaica after you're purchase them online”.


So will PayPal in the future become a payment option to a Credit or Prepaid Debit Card as a source of funds for Apple Pay on your Apple Watch, especially as it is more secure? The First Quarter of 2015 in the Year of the Sheep may be when the Apple Watch goes live and all speculation is laid to rest.





No comments: