Mobile Payments: Apple Versus Walmart

While Apple's new mobile payment platform Apple Pay is considered a boon to retailers, Walmart and other merchants aren't happy -- because they have already created a competing electronic payment system.

Apple Pay works on the new iPhone 6 and works with near-field communication technology, as does CurrentC "a product of the Walmart-led Merchant Customer Exchange," according to Forbes. The exchange is made of other retailers and merchants who worked on the system to avoid credit card swipe fees. The problem is that the merchants who signed on had to pay "an upfront fee" and agree to three years of the system.
 
CurrentC was the invention of Walmart vice president Mike Cook, and doesn't use credit cards but rather with the shoppers' bank account and avoids the credit card swipe fees. Forbes indicates that Apple Pay seems to work more "seamlessly" than the exchange, but it's also the option for early adopters who bought the iPhone 6.
 
It's not surprising that Walmart and other retailers may not be embracing Apple Pay after spending so much time and effort on their own alternative. As for who will succeed in mobile payments -- it's too early to tell. There are still more innovations that could change the marketplace.
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