Visa Bringing Tokenization to Europe, Apple Pay on Its Way

Visa Bringing Tokenization to Europe, Apple Pay on Its Way

On Tuesday, Visa announced that it will be rolling out tokenization technology in Europe by mid-April. The new tokenization technology could make Apple Pay roll out a breeze internationally to the 743 million people continent. The tokenization technology is the "the heart of new mobile payment solutions." It\'s pretty obvious, though. Tokenization is used in Apple Pay, which is used to replace sensitive information with a one-time digital token exchanged between your iPhone and an NFC-enabled payment terminal. “Apple and Visa (Inc) have an agreement around what has happened,” Visa spokesman Steve Perry told Reuters. “I am as excited as anyone, but we have to wait,” he said. “The tokenization service protects customer data, substituting the payment account information found on a plastic card with a series of numbers that can be used to authorize payment without exposing actual account details,” explained Visa. “When consumers use their mobile device to make a contactless payment in a store, a token is submitted, rather than their account details.” Because credit card data nor data transaction is stored on the device, merchants don\'t have access to it. Even if someone gets a hold of your transaction data, they would be completely useless because the token used for the transaction can only be used once.

Apple Outtsells Android for the First Time Since 2012

Apple Outtsells Android for the First Time Since 2012

Wednesday, TechCrunch relayed a survey put out by market researcher Kantar Worldpanel which showed a small victory for Apple as they overtook Android during the last three months of 2014 in terms of units sold. Awaken by the introduction of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple withheld a 47.7% share of the US smartphone market. Android took a 47.6% share, and Windows Phone had a measly 3.8% share. Kantar chief of research Carolina Milanesi noted it’s “the slimmest 0.1% margin” he’s ever seen. Not only is Apple’s success the result of the iPhone 6 mania, but also due to “the strongest product portfolio” in Apple’s history. Apple\'s growth was noted during Apple\'s earnings call in Q1 2015 by Apple CEO Tim Cook. The company sold a record breaking 74.5 million iPhone units during the holiday quarter, a 46% growth. The largest profitable quarter in any companies history. Although the iPhone is the largest selling smartphone in the US, followed by Samsung\'s Galaxy S5, Google is still going strong in Europe, regardless of the 3.8% drop from their overall 66.1% share this last quarter.

iPhone 6 now “In Stock” in Apple’s US Online Store

iPhone 6 now “In Stock” in Apple’s US Online Store

Good news for potential iPhone 6 buyers: Apple\'s US Online Store has now marked the iPhone 6 as "in stock" four months after its release. The only model that isn\'t available is the SIM-free iPhone 6 Plus released earlier this week. The iPhone 6 Plus fluctuated its shipping times, and in certain cases hit the 4-6 week mark. The iPhone 6 hit a high of 7-10 business days. When I pre-ordered my space grey 64GB iPhone 6 Plus in September, it wasn\'t slated for delivery until November. Luckily, I was able to pick one up at my local Apple Store in early October. Though, it\'s not all fun and games outside of the US. Shipping times are still improving in Europe and in China users must pre-register for a reservation online, and pick them up in store. That being said, this can result in ridiculously long waiting lines.