Mobile payments on iPhone are experiencing a small revolution at the beginning of December 2024. For the first time since the launch of Apple Pay, a direct competitor appears in the iOS ecosystem, marking a historic turning point in Apple’s strategy regarding control of the NFC technology of its devices.
Vipps launches the first Apple Pay competitor on iPhone
Norwegian payment service Vipps has just become the first company in the world to offer an alternative to Apple Pay on iPhone. This progress follows the historic agreement reached between Apple and European regulators in July 2024, finally opening access to the NFC technology of iPhones to third-party services. The arrival of a competing system in Norway is all the more interesting as the country is not part of the European Union and has not actively participated in the regulation concerning the opening of the NFC chip.
Starting today, Norwegian users can make contactless payments in stores via the Vipps app. The service is already compatible with SpareBank 1, DNB and more than 40 other Norwegian banks, covering around 70% of the country’s banking customers.
In a press release, Rune Garbog, CEO of Vipps MobilePay said:
We’ve fought for years to be able to compete on a level playing field with Apple, and it seems almost unreal to finally be able to launch our own solution.
A promising European expansion
The service currently works with terminals accepting BankAxept cards, Norway’s national payment system, which covers more than 90% of payment terminals in the country. Vipps plans to expand compatibility to Visa and Mastercard in the coming months, enabling payments globally before summer 2025.
Usage is similar to that of Apple Pay: simply bring your iPhone close to the payment terminal and authenticate using Face ID, Touch ID or the device code. Users can even set Vipps as their default payment app and activate it with a double-click on the side button, just like Apple Pay.
Resulting from the merger between the Norwegian Vipps and the Danish MobilePay, the company aims to extend its tap-to-pay solution to Denmark, Finland and Sweden in 2025. This expansion could pave the way for similar implementations by other payment providers across Europe. In France, Wero has the same hope and could be available as a competitor to Apple Pay in 2025.
This major development in the iOS mobile payments ecosystem follows European regulatory pressure for more openness and competition. For Apple, which has long defended exclusive access to the iPhone’s NFC chip for security reasons, this is a significant paradigm shift that could have repercussions on other markets in the future.
