[1]Why Apple Pay Suica is a success and Apple Maps is not:

[1]Why Apple Pay Suica is a success and Apple Maps is not:

Inbound Apple Pay Suica user experiences are endlessly fascinating
and occasionally enlightening. This tweet video captures the usual
'whoa, that's fast' first time reaction.

I feel like I'm in the future. [2]pic.twitter.com/OH5ebZ2lj7

- ken (@kenbolido) [3]November 12, 2018

The responses are equally interesting with a few 'so what? we have
that in (London, Moscow, China, etc.)' which is true but it's not
the same. Almost all of them are slower, don't have e-money
functions, don't have nationwide coverage and are not hosted
natively on pay platforms like Apple Pay or Google Pay. They rely on
[4]slow buggy EMV contactless credit card transactions on transit
gates instead, in short they are not [5]transit payment platforms.

Apple Pay Suica is clearly a great service and success that has
[6]not only changed contactless payments in Japan but changed Apple
as well, with Apple incorporating [7]global FeliCa and implementing
[8]A-12 Bionic powered Express Card with power reserve technology
which matches the performance of dedicated Sony FeliCa Chips on the
A-Series.

What makes Apple Pay Suica a success? It is a unique layering of
hardware and software that tightly integrates into a single seamless
experience. At the core is the basic Suica IC card format and the
transit gate system technology created by [9]JR East and Sony in the
1980s to solve a user experience problem with magnetic commuter pass
cards. Successive layers were added over time: e-money,
[10]nationwide Transit IC card interoperability, and perhaps most
important of all, Mobile Suica. The [11]Super Suica additions will
further enhance the fundamental technology in 2021.

Apple Pay support arrived in October 2016, global FeliCa was added
in 2017. These were 2 layers from Apple that fit perfectly and
extended the entire platform with a whole new ease of use service
level. The result is a service where each layer builds on and
enhances the whole. This is [12]Steve Jobs 101: work from the user
experience back to technology so that the total experience is
greater than the sum of the parts.

The Apple Maps problem
Contrast this with Apple Maps. Justin O'Beirne recently published a
detailed progress report of [13]Apple's 'new' (in America only) map.
There was surprisingly little discussion on tech blog sites,
[14]Nick Heer was one of the few to share a few observations.
O'Beirne and Heer both focus on data collection and prioritization
as the core problem for Apple to fix if Apple is ever going to close
the map gap with Google. I think that is a misconception that got
Apple Maps in trouble in the first place.

I've never seen data collection as the biggest problem that Apple
needs to fix. In Japan for example the data collection problem can
be solved quickly by swapping out 3rd rate data suppliers with first
tier JP suppliers like [15]Zenrin who already field large data
collection and verification teams. Google and Yahoo Maps Japan both
use Zenrin and build on top of that solid foundation with their own
data.

Integration and coordination have been, and continue to be the
biggest problem. If Apple cannot do a good job integrating and
coordinating different map service layers so that they build on each
other, it will continue to be what it is now: a collection of
loosely connected technology services that don't work together very
well and tend to pull each other down instead of up. A few examples:
* Transit
Apple has a very good Japanese transit data supplier [16]Jourdan,
the same one Google uses. Unfortunately the good transit data gets
wasted by the limited search and sort App Maps transit UI that is
completely manual, doesn't dynamically update travel times or
arrival estimates, or even provide location-based alerts when you
arrive. Those kinds of integrated transit notifications on Apple
Watch alone would sell a lot more devices.
* Siri
Siri is one the most important service layers for integrating
navigation, transit and indoor maps. Unfortunately Siri is poorly
connected where it should be hooked into every nook and cranny.
Japanese Siri can locate the nearest station, usually, but that's
it. Siri doesn't do transit searches or suggestions.
* Navigation
Turn by turn has been offered in Japan for a few years but it still
basically useless without traffic information, which is still
missing. [17]Lane Guidance was only added just recently.
* Data Duplication
This happens all the time as Apple fails at coordinating and
verifying data sets from different JP suppliers.

And so on. I included data duplication as it illustrates my basic
point that no matter how good the basic data collection is, it's
worthless without a robust integration and coordination process. A
smart team of human editors with deep local knowledge understand how
services should connect, what works and how it should work. A truly
great team also knows how to focus and do more, much more, with
less. This is impossible to achieve with the current one size fits
all mentality.

Apple Maps Japan is a classic '[18]the total is less than the sum of
its parts' product. To be sure there are some good parts, but in
Japan they don't add up. The different layers stay separate and
never integrate into a seamless whole like Apple Pay Suica does.
It's great that Apple is making process with its map reboot effort
in America but the real test will be how well they integrate it all.
Superior focus and integration is the only way Apple can close its
map gap with Google.

(Via [19]Ata Distance)
Also on:

[20]Twitter
__________________________________________________________________

My original entry is here: [21]Why Apple Pay Suica is a success and
Apple Maps is not (In Japan). It posted Sun, 25 Nov 2018 13:41:29
+0000.
Filed under: Japan,

References

Visible links
1. https://atadistance.net/2018/11/19/why-apple-pay-suica-is-a-success-and-apple-maps-is-not/
2. https://t.co/OH5ebZ2lj7
3. https://twitter.com/kenbolido/status/1061840476725227520?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
4. https://atadistance.net/2018/11/14/the-contactless-payment-turf-wars-why-oyster-is-missing-from-mobile/
5. https://atadistance.net/2018/03/12/the-contactless-payment-turf-wars-transit/
6. https://atadistance.net/2018/01/28/the-apple-pay-japan-one-year-mark/
7. https://atadistance.net/2017/09/12/iphone-x-keynote-global-felica/
8. https://atadistance.net/2018/09/14/a12-bionic-nfc-on-ios-12/
9. http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/development/story/
10. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suica#/media/File:ICCard_Connection.svg
11. https://atadistance.net/2018/10/10/apple-pay-super-suica-japan-and-beyond/
12. https://youtu.be/FF-tKLISfPE?t=87
13. https://www.justinobeirne.com/new-apple-maps
14. https://pxlnv.com/linklog/obeirne-new-apple-maps/
15. https://www.zenrin.co.jp/
16. https://www.jorudan.co.jp/
17. https://atadistance.net/2018/11/14/apple-maps-japan-adds-lane-guidance/
18. https://youtu.be/6iACK-LNnzM?t=318
19. https://atadistance.net/
20. https://twitter.com/prjorgensen/status/1066689514154991616
21. https://www.prjorgensen.com/?p=2355

Hidden links:
23. https://atadistance.net/2018/11/19/why-apple-pay-suica-is-a-success-and-apple-maps-is-not/fullsizeoutput_9151/
24. https://atadistance.net/2018/11/19/why-apple-pay-suica-is-a-success-and-apple-maps-is-not/fullsizeoutput_9152/
25. https://atadistance.net/2018/11/19/why-apple-pay-suica-is-a-success-and-apple-maps-is-not/fullsizeoutput_915f/
26. https://atadistance.net/8826ec6c-72a5-4868-906e-823776cadc8f/
27. https://atadistance.net/2018/11/19/why-apple-pay-suica-is-a-success-and-apple-maps-is-not/fullsizeoutput_915b/
28. https://atadistance.net/2018/11/19/why-apple-pay-suica-is-a-success-and-apple-maps-is-not/fullsizeoutput_915d/