蘋果或計劃開發推出移動支付平臺

It’s not official, but good journalists at Wired and the Financial Times reported Thursday that Apple’s next generation of consumer devices — iPhones for sure, wearable devices maybe — will come equipped with a NFC (near field communication) chip for making mobile payments.

雖然並非官方消息，但《連線》（Wired）和《金融時報》（Financial Times）的資深記者在上週四報道稱，蘋果（Apple）的下一代電子消費品（確定包括iPhone，可能還包括可穿戴設備）將會配有可用於移動支付的NFC（近場通訊）芯片。

This is big news, in part because Apple is so late to the NFC party.

這是個重大消息，部分原因在於蘋果終於邁入了NFC領域，雖說有點姍姍來遲。

The rest of the world switched to the technology years ago. Google, Samsung, Nokia, Sony, Blackberry, Visa, MasterCard. It’s the way credit cards talk to banks and retailers in most of the countries of Europe and Asia.

早在數年前，全球的其他地區就已經開始採用該技術。參與者包括谷歌（Google）、三星（Samsung）、諾基亞（Nokia）、索尼（Sony）、黑莓（Blackberry）、Visa和萬事達（Mastercard）。在歐洲和亞洲的大部分國家，信用卡都採用這種技術與銀行和商家進行交易。

But not in the U.S.

但在美國不是這樣。

That’s about to change. Visa and MasterCard have set an October 2015 deadline for U.S. retailers to switch from magnetic strips to embedded chips. If Apple wants in on the game, now’s the time.

這一點即將改變。Visa和萬事達已經設定截止日期，要求美國的零售商在2015年10月前將磁條卡換成芯片卡。如果蘋果想要入局，現在就是個合適的時機。

In April, re/Code’s Jason Del Ray reported that Apple was holding job interviews with senior payments industry executives. In July The Information’s Amir Efrati reported that discussions between Apple and the payments industry had heated up in advance of the launch of what the tech press is calling the “iWallet.” The Financial Times reported Thursday that Apple has tapped the Dutch chipmaker NXP to supply the NFC technology.

今年4月，科技博客re/Code的傑森o德爾o雷報道稱，蘋果正在對支付行業的高管進行招聘面試。今年7月，科技博客The Information的阿米爾o埃弗拉提報道稱，在發佈科技媒體所謂的錢包類產品“iWallet”之前，蘋果已經和支付業打得火熱。上週四，《金融時報》也報道稱，蘋果已經與荷蘭芯片製造商NXP接洽，讓後者爲其提供NFC技術。

Apple can’t change the way most Americans pay for things. As Stratechery’s Ben Thompson observes, it’s hard to disrupt cash and credit cards because they both work pretty well.

蘋果無法改變大多數美國人的購物方式。正如科技博客Stratechery的博主本o湯普森所指出的，要阻止人們使用現金與信用卡十分困難，因爲它們都很好用。

But for Apple’s customers — the “affordable luxury” crowd — the pieces of a new payment platform are falling into place.

但對於蘋果用戶，即“平價奢侈品”的用戶而言，新的支付平臺即將浮出水面。

In her report on an NFC-equipped iPhone, Wired’s Christina Bonnington ticked them off:

《連線》的克里斯蒂娜o伯寧頓圍繞裝備NFC芯片的iPhone這個話題撰寫了一份報告，列舉了蘋果的一些有利因素：

o More than 800 million credit card numbers on iTunes

o 蘋果的iTunes記錄了超過8億個信用卡號碼

o An installed base of 300 million bluetooth-equipped iPhones

o 蘋果售出了3億臺配備藍牙的iPhone，擁有龐大的客戶羣。

o A fast-growing network of Bluetooth-LTE transmitting iBeacons

o 蘋果用於發射iBeacons信號的藍牙-長期演進技術（LTE）網絡正在迅速發展

o A patent on dual-use NFC and bluetooth payment system

o 蘋果擁有NFC和藍牙兩用支付系統的專利

o A patent on storing financial data in a “secure element”

o 蘋果擁有將財務數據存儲於“安全環境”的專利

o A patent on a payment system that is location and context aware.

o 蘋果擁有能夠感知地理位置和情境的支付系統的專利

According to Bonnington, the payment platform will be one of the tentpoles of the Sept. 9 press circus in Cupertino.

根據伯寧頓的說法，在9月9日庫比蒂諾的蘋果發佈會上，支付平臺將會作爲最大亮點之一隆重登場。

Whether any part of the system works for people who own older iPhones — or for people who can’t afford Apple’s products — remains to be seen.

而這一平臺能否部分應用於擁有舊款iPhone的用戶，或是那些買不起蘋果產品的人，我們仍需拭目以待。

Correction and clarification:Reader James Wester suggests on Twitter that I’ve just conflated NFC and EMV. I’m sure he’s right. EMV, which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, is the international standard for credit card reader interoperability. According to Datacard Edge

修正及澄清：讀者詹姆斯o韋斯特在Twitter上稱我把NFC與EMV混爲一談了。我相信他是對的。EMV代表Europay卡、萬事達卡和Visa卡的首字母簡寫，是一種讓信用卡讀卡器互通互用的國際標準。金融網站Datacard Edge表示：

“NFC technology isn’t directly associated with financial transactions like the EMV standards. One of NFC’s applications, however, is enabling contactless payments via mobile devices, in addition to its much broader applications for data transfer, keyless door entry and much more.” See EMV vs. NFC Technology: Setting the record straight.

“NFC技術與EMV標準等金融交易領域的問題沒有直接關係。然而，該技術能夠讓移動設備的非接觸式支付成爲可能，此外還在數據傳送、無鑰匙進門和許多其他領域有着更爲廣泛的應用。”（財富中文網）