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.
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