Apple to Introduce Sony’s FeliCa Technology with Apple Pay in Japan Trains

Apple hasn’t gained much popularity outside of the U.S It was first introduced with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in 2014. The Apple Pay also works with older generation iPhones with the support of Apple Watch. Earlier this year, Apple also introduced the Apple Pay in few Asian countries including China, Singapore and Hong Kong. Until now, Apple Pay worked with NFC but in Japan, the company might opt for FeliCa technology that doesn’t require NFC chip. The FeliCa technology was developed by Sony in collaboration with NTT Docomo.

Felica based mobile payment system is widespread in Japan when compared to mobile payments with NFC integrated cards. Now Apple will introduce the same FeliCa technology based Apple Pay exclusively for the Japanese market. Though there is no official confirmation, the upcoming iPhones will be the first set of Apple devices to feature the FeliCa-based Apple Pay. Rest of the world will still use the NFC-based Apple Pay which is yet to be available in India.

Interestingly the FeliCa-based mobile payments will be processed faster than NFC payments as its requires banks authentication. The Apple Pay based on Felica technology will be made available first in Japanese Trains which is the major mean of transport. The company is also said to be in talks with at least one majorJapanese bank for payments. Once the deal is finalised, then the Apple Pay will work even at stores, vending machines, and even with Nintendo’s Wii U gaming console.

FeliCa based payment system is widespread in Japan which has 1.9 million payments terminals. In comparison, the U.S has only 1.3 million NFC-based payment terminals while U.K has just a little over 0.3 million NFC terminals. This new payment method is expected to be introduced with the upcoming iPhone 7 & iPhone 7 Plus that will be launched next month. Few leaks also suggest the company to launch a third device called iPhone 6 SE. All these devices will be running on latest iOS 10 and will be powered Apple A10 chipset.