Apple will partner with Sony, developers of the FeliCa standard, in an effort to break into Japan’s mobile payments market, Nikkei reports. By integrating Apple Pay with FeliCa hardware, Apple is able to tap into a vast point of sale network already deployed nationwide at convenience stores, vending machines and other retail locations.
Unlike Apple Pay, which transmits payment information over secure NFC channels, FeliCa was first introduced as an RFID chip solution embedded into so-called “smart cards.” Sony later partnered with Japan’s leading cellular provider NTT DoCoMo to develop a hybrid FeliCa technology for smartphones called Mobile FeliCa.
