北京“手機一卡通”排除iPhone

Everyone in Beijing can now get on to public transport with the tap of a smartphone — everyone except Apple iPhone users.

北京的每個人現(xiàn)在都可以通過刷智能手機搭乘公共交通工具——唯獨蘋果(Apple) iPhone用戶除外。

Beijing’s public transport payments company Yikatong has launched an app that allows most Android smartphone users to pay for journeys by tapping their smartphone rather than their transport card, starting on Monday.

北京市政交通一卡通推出一個應用，讓多數(shù)Android智能手機用戶從周一開始，可通過刷智能手機(而不是交通卡)支付交通費。

The upgrade fits well with the Chinese habit of using smartphones to pay for anything from utility bills to street food, and will serve as a template for transport systems across China. As such, the exclusion of iPhone is a blow for Apple.

這一升級合乎當今中國人使用智能手機付費(從水電費到街頭食品)的習慣，并將作為中國各地公交系統(tǒng)的一個模板。因此，排除iPhone對蘋果是一個打擊。

The event shows just how badly the technology group is being beaten in mobile payments in China, the world’s largest with an estimated $8.8tn in transactions in 2016, according to iResearch.

這件事突顯出，這家美國科技集團在中國移動支付領域的處境有多慘。艾瑞咨詢(iResearch)的數(shù)據顯示，中國移動支付市場是世界最大的，去年交易總額達到8.8萬億美元。

Apple was locked out of the Beijing public transit payment system because of its policy of reserving contactless payment — that is, the ability to pay for something by waving a phone in front of a terminal — to its Apple Pay app, rather than granting access to to third-party apps such as Yikatong’s, or popular payment systems such as Tencent’s WeChat Pay and Alibaba’s Alipay.

蘋果之所以被排除在北京公共交通支付系統(tǒng)之外，是因為該公司的政策，即把非接觸式支付(在支付終端前刷一下手機就完成支付的能力)留給Apple Pay應用程序，而不愿把接入權授予第三方應用，如一卡通或者騰訊(Tencent)的微信支付(WeChat Pay)和阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的支付寶(Alipay)這些非常普及的支付系統(tǒng)。

Android-based competitors such as Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi do allow contactless payment that links to these apps.

基于Android的競爭對手，如三星(Samsung)、華為(Huawei)和小米(Xiaomi)則允許鏈接到這些應用的非接觸式支付。

“[Apple’s policy] is counterproductive,” said Mark Natkins, managing director of Marbridge Consulting, a Beijing-based tech consultancy. “It potentially locks them out of a variety of initiatives, particularly the major push in China to introduce smart city initiatives.”

“(蘋果的政策)適得其反，”北京邁博瑞咨詢(Marbridge Consulting)董事總經理馬克•納特金(Mark Natkin)表示，“這可能會使他們被擋在各種舉措門外，特別是中國推出智能城市舉措的重大努力。”

WeChat Pay and Alipay are integrated into social messaging and ecommerce apps offered by Tencent and Alibaba, and are therefore extremely popular.

微信支付和支付寶分別融入騰訊和阿里巴巴提供的社交信息和電子商務應用，因此極度普及。

Moreover, Tencent and Alibaba’s payment systems involve scanning a QR code with a phone camera, rather than tapping something to make a payment. Chinese consumers are just more used to this system of code scanning, rather than Apple’s system of waving a phone in front of a cash register.

此外，騰訊和阿里巴巴的支付系統(tǒng)涉及使用手機相機掃描一個QR碼，而不是刷手機付款。中國消費者更習慣于這種代碼掃描系統(tǒng)，而不是蘋果實行的在收銀終端前刷手機的系統(tǒng)。

The upshot is that Apple, one of the first to offer contactless transactions in China, has been relegated to less than 1 per cent of China’s mobile payments market and is losing markets that embrace contactless payment.

其結果是，原本是中國首批非接觸式交易提供商之一的蘋果，在中國移動支付市場的份額已經跌至1%以下，正在失去擁抱非接觸式支付的市場。

“It’s very ironic that iPhones are excluded [from the Beijing public-transit upgrade] given that Apple Pay is one of the trailblazers for [contactless] payments in China,” said Matthew Brennan, co-founder of digital marketing agency China Channel.

“鑒于Apple Pay是中國非接觸式支付的開拓者之一，iPhone被排除(在北京公共交通一卡通升級以外)是非常諷刺的，”數(shù)字營銷機構China Channel聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人馬修•布倫南(Matthew Brennan)表示。

Apple’s offering, which was launched in China in early 2016, has not made it into the top 10 payment apps in the country.

蘋果在2016年初在中國推出的支付服務，從未進入中國10大支付應用之列。

iPhone sales in Greater China fell during the past year while local competitors using the Android operating system stormed ahead.

過去一年里大中華區(qū)iPhone銷量下滑，而使用Android操作系統(tǒng)的當?shù)馗偁帉κ秩〉瞄L足進展。

Apple’s approach of guarding its contactless payment technology has not worked well in China, where Apple Pay occupies a small segment of the payments market and thus third-party app developers — such as Yikatong — can go ahead and develop alternative payment systems without co-operation from Apple.

蘋果保護其非接觸式支付技術的做法在中國收效不佳;Apple Pay在中國支付市場僅占一小塊份額，而一卡通等第三方應用開發(fā)商可以在沒有蘋果合作的情況下，放手開發(fā)替代支付系統(tǒng)。

“The vast majority of subway travellers are going to be using Android phones. It totally makes sense to prioritise those users,” added Mr Brennan.

“絕大多數(shù)地鐵旅客使用Android手機。優(yōu)先考慮這些用戶是完全合理的，”布倫南補充說。