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The cashier in the Aldi market on Prague Square today had three customers who paid with their smartphones. "Much more than before," she says. "I watched the first try two years ago."

Apple Pay is starting this week in Germany at the start. And thus probably the last of the major providers of mobile payment systems in the Western world. Already before, Volksbanken and Sparkassen and of course Google had launched their mobile payment versions. Google provides the Android operating system for 80 percent of all smartphones sold in Germany and of course has a start advantage. But Apple's customers are known for adopting new technology faster.

Send break at Apple

On Android phones customers can download since the summer and the apps of the local banks and savings banks and use the built-in virtually all new phones NFC chip for mobile payments. NFC is the abbreviation for Near Field Communication, to German "Nahfunk". Customers have to use their smartphones or appropriately equipped giro or credit cards close to the card reader at the supermarket checkout to pay without further ado. For sums under 25 euros, it does not even need a pin or a fingerprint.

While the cooperative bankers this week could come up with specific numbers, this was at Apple first send break. When asked, the company sent a tweet from a journalist colleague who wrote of a three-digit number of card applications for Apple Pay every minute alone at Deutsche Bank. With the HypoVereinsbank and the N26 smartphone bank, Deutsche Bank is one of the prominent financial institutions offering mobile payment to its iPhone owners since Tuesday.

In fact, when signing up, there seems to be a lot going on. We were contacted by Deutsche Bank customers who did not make the call, either because their iPhone was too old or because the system only accepted Mastercards as credit cards. At HypoVereinsbank it said Thursday, about half of their customers who made banking with the mobile phone, Apple customers. Therefore, one expects a significant increase in mobile payment.

Tremendous exploitation of own market power

Apple itself did not want to provide concrete figures for the use of Apple Pay in Germany nor to the experience in the 25 other states in which Apple is already at the start. Only one number sent the Apple press office: 5200 banks worldwide would now work with Apple Pay.

As expected, there was also no information from Apple about ongoing disputes with the consumer protection authorities in Denmark and Australia and about the UK Department of the Interior's controversy over the use of the NFC chip in Apple devices for British ID cards. Instead, however, evidence of high privacy standards in the US and a praise for Apple Pay by the US consumer organization Consumer Reports. Technical function and data security go before cooperation.

The savings banks use this stubbornness of the apple company for their own information offensive. Tenor: The trade has provided readers for all NFC techniques, whether on a map or in the smartphone - and no matter what operating system. By 2020, even all supermarket cash registers should be able to read NFC. The savings banks would also like to offer their customers mobile payment on all operating systems - even on iPhones, but the Americans adorned themselves. Apple does not release the NFC interface for other payment providers. A pretty brazen exploitation of their own market power.

Sprint for the best market position

And at the Volksbanks it says on the subject: We offer mobile numbers in Germany nationwide on the girocards of our 915 member institutions - and of course for the issued there Visa and Mastercard credit cards, using Android smartphone. The Volksbanks are currently the only banks where you can use all the classic cards for mobile payments by mobile phone. The own app has been downloaded over 50,000 times in recent months, 80 percent to use with the girocard.

So what conclusions are drawn from the discussion? Positive about the development:

  • Customer safety does not seem to be the issue today when using mobile payment systems. Paying is safe in principle because it is encrypted.
  • Mobile payment costs the customer in most cases, nothing extra.
  • Paying by mobile phone is convenient and is possible at more and more funds.
  • You do not even need Internet at the cash register. Encryption stored in the mobile phone is sufficient.

Stay two problems:

  • First, what happens if the phone is stolen instead of the purse in the future? Answer: That's annoying, but the money is not necessarily gone. You should have your cell phone secured against unauthorized access with a code. Also, many smartphones can be remotely disabled and made unusable - unlike cash. And for the losses due to withdrawals below 25 € are liable as a rule, the providers.
  • Second, Google Pay gathers data on buying patterns that Google (the company that already knows most about us) has not had. In this respect, only cash guarantees real privacy. Incidentally, Google did not respond to my request until the deadline.

The actual dispute is currently raging in the sprint for the best market position and for future monopoly positions in the market. However, there is currently no talk of monopoly positions: EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is known for her struggles with the US tech giants, has determined some time ago that Apple does not hold a dominant position in this area. She does not see there "the necessary evidence to initiate an investigation."

According to a recent representative survey by Visa, more than half of all customers in Germany would also use their smartphone to pay at the filling station or ticket machine. But we are not there yet. Market dominance is difficult, as long as only three customers on a morning pay at Aldi mobile.