支付不能承受之轻——Apple Pay使用初体验

    第二天，我在快餐连锁店Panera Bread就餐，发现该公司在大肆宣传可接受Apple Pay付款。我走进店里，看见三台收银机贴上了接受无接触式付款的标志，不禁心里欢腾了一下！排队的时候，我不停在脑海里演练着如何操作。我需不需要跟收银员提前打个招呼？还是说装作很熟练地直接把手机放在签名板上（它同时可用作Apple Pay近场通讯技术的阅读器）？以后买单的时候，我还会这么紧张吗？

    终于轮到我了。我把手机举到签名板上面，看到iPhone的屏幕闪出了我的银行卡图片，然后又变黑了。完事了。我刚刚用Apple Pay进行了人生中的“处女付”，结果一切发生太快，我都没来得及对收银员说出我排练了很久的台词。总而言之，用iPhone付款太简单了。直到收到小票，放回钱包，我才如梦初醒。

    于是，这周我试着在所有买单的场合用Apple Pay付款。由于住在远离大都市的偏远小镇，我已经习惯了当地的商户总是在技术上落后半拍。我曾经希望Apple Pay是一个例外。可惜，结果却并非如我所愿。两周后，我们当地的商户还是没有半点动静，就和以前一样。

    当然，我们不能奢望移动支付一夜间普及，甚至未来几个月都可能实现不了这一点。Apple Pay的问世也许比它的前辈们更轰动一时，但整个行业还有很长的路要走。一些零售商在结账台禁用近场通讯阅读器，使得Apple Pay无法发挥作用，这种做法颇值得玩味。谷歌钱包（Google Wallet）几年前就已问世，而这些零售商也一直无动于衷。Apple Pay似乎正在取得突破，但另一方面，零售商们正在为那些希望用数字渠道支付的消费者设置新的障碍。

    顺便提一下，我仅有的两笔Apple Pay支付记录中的另一笔是在麦当劳。我带着孩子们去买冰激凌，收银员和孩子们都没在意我是怎么付款的，或许连我自己也不应当（对怎么付款）大惊小怪—— 又或，这才是问题所在。（财富中文网）

    The next day I made a stop at Panera Bread, the national fast casual food chain, where it is widely advertised that Apple Pay is accepted. I walked into the store and noticed three cash registers affixed with signs stating that they were contact-less payment ready. Jackpot! Waiting in line, I rehearsed in my head how the transaction play out. Do I tell the clerk what I’m doing? Or do I just just hold my phone over the signature pad (which doubles as a reader of near-field communications technology, the tech at work with Apple Pay) as if this is something I’ve done my entire life? Will the future always be the source of so much anxiety?

    It came time for me to pay. I held my phone above the signature pad and watched as my iPhone’s screen flashed with a picture of my card and then went black. That was it. I had just made my first payment with Apple Pay and it happened so fast I didn’t even have time to have one of my rehearsed conversations with the clerk. If nothing else, paying with my iPhone was too easy. My amazement was interrupted as I was handed a paper receipt to place in my wallet.

    I tried to use Apple Pay at every point of purchase for the rest of the week. Living outside of a major metropolitan area, I’ve grown accustomed to local businesses being behind the technological curve. I hoped Apple Pay would be different. Alas, that’s not the case. Two weeks later, my local businesses are no closer to embracing the future as they had been.

    The shift to mobile payments isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight, of course. It won’t even happen over the course of a few months. Apple Pay has arguably made a bigger splash its predecessors, but there’s more work to be done across the entire field. The fact that retailers are disabling NFC readers at the checkout stand—which renders Apple Pay useless—speaks volumes when you consider Google Wallet has been around for a few years and those same retailers never batted an eye at customers using it. On the one hand, Apple Pay seems to be breaking through. On the other, retailers are creating new roadblocks for consumers who want to pay using digital means.

    The only other transaction I was able to use Apple Pay for, by the way, was at McDonald’s. I took my kids out for some ice cream. Neither the clerk nor my kids cared how I paid for the tasty treat. Perhaps neither should I—and perhaps that’s the point.