Walmart Drops An Atomic Bomb On Its Apple Pay Competitor.

Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, has just fired the biggest salvo in the mobile payment wars since last year’s launch of Apple Pay. The Bentonville, Ark. giant announced it is starting to rollout Walmart Pay, a smartphone-based payment solution that will work with all credit cards, debit cards and Walmart gift cards at its own U.S. stores. Walmart Pay will run on both Android and iOS and should be available nationwide by the middle of next year.
But the big news, which Walmart neglected to mention in its press release, is that in dropping this midnight bomb just two weeks before Christmas, the retailer isn’t targeting Apple Pay. Instead, it’s essentially blowing up MCX, the Walmart-led consortium that was formed in 2012 and has been desperately trying to roll out an Apple Pay competitor called CurrentC. Exclusivity agreements signed by MCX partners led to strange results when Apple Pay launched last year. Drugstores CVS and RiteAid explicitly disabled their NFC, contactless payment devices to thwart the use of iPhone payment. (RiteAid has since restored Apple Pay functionality.) Target, another MCX partner, allowed Apple Pay in its app, but not in stores.

Walmart has essentially taken the technology behind MCX and rolled out a single-merchant version for its own stores. It works a little different than both Apple Pay and Google’s equivalent Android Pay. With Walmart Pay, you open an app on your phone and scan a barcode on the register screen at checkout. That sends a signal to the register you will pay via the app and allows the backend system to send you an itemized receipt of your purchases to the smartphone. It also means payment is handled seamlessly by whatever credit or debit card you’ve linked to the app. The implementation is a bit clunkier in that you have to trigger the app and complete a scan. But the receipt functionality isn’t yet available from Apple and is a nice addition.

Perhaps more importantly, this move could easily signal a death knell for MCX and CurrentC. MCX’s requirements for exclusive deals were limited in duration, and some early signees like Best Buy and Kohl’s have already begun offering Apple Pay and/or Android Pay. Given that CurrentC has never advanced past limited testing in places like Columbus, Ohio, it’s not clear the endeavor has much of a future at this point. The essential selling point was that it was a single solution for many merchants with integrated features like loyalty programs. Plagued by a series of delays, though, that selling point has become less compelling. Apple Pay now supports loyalty programs, with Walgreens offering the first such integration. Kohl’s store card is one of the first to work with the Apple Wallet, as well.

Payments expert Brian Roemmele, who recently released the PayFinders app which helps consumers locate Apple Pay compatible merchants, believes Walmart Pay could deal a mortal blow to MCX’s ambitions: “MCX was conceived to allow like minded merchants to create an alternative and less costly payment system,” he said. “It began to erode as Apple Pay began to appear inevitable. With the release of Walmart Pay, it is clear that MCX and CurrentC will likely either not be released or be lost in the noise of other proprietary systems.” In particular, Roemmele noted that Target will likely now move ahead with a full Apple

Pay and Android Pay implementation of its own Red Card in the near future.While some reports suggest Apple Pay has been slow to gain traction, the availability of more merchants that support NFC-based payment and the increase in U.S. consumers with iPhone 6 and 6s models will likely lead to continued adoption in 2016. The same cannot be said for MCX. Walmart will now learn whether a single-merchant offering is as appealing to its customers.

By: Mark Rogowsky. 

Toyota Starts Sales Of 4th Generation Prius Hybrid.

Toyota said Wednesday it expects annual sales of its newly-released fourth generation Prius hybrid to reach as many as 350,000 vehicles despite a big drop in oil prices making traditional gasoline cars cheap to run.

The automaker is promising mileage of 40.8 kilometers a liter (96 miles a gallon) in Japan for its latest version of the gasoline-electric car, better than the 40 kpm initially projected.

Mileage tests and driving conditions differ by nation. Toyota Motor Corp. has promised about 52 mpg in the U.S.

Executive Vice President Mitsuhisa Kato told reporters at a Tokyo showroom, that the latest Prius made fewer driving experience compromises to achieve better mileage. "There is nothing you feel you are suffering through to get that mileage," he said.

Improvements in the battery, engine, wind resistance and weight are contributing to the improved performance, according to Toyota. The new Prius also got a design makeover, although reaction has been divided.

Toyota has sold 3.6 million Prius vehicles globally, making it the world's top-selling hybrid, but its popularity is mostly limited to the U.S. and Japan. Toyota faced skepticism when it first introduced Prius in 1997. Sales last year totaled about 240,000 vehicles.

"In my mind, there is no doubt that this new model will be well received," said Max Zanan, chief executive of IDDS Group, a New York-based consulting company that specializes in auto retailing. "It will continue to set the pace for, and dominate, the global hybrid car market."

A hybrid switches back and forth between a gasoline engine and an electric motor to deliver an efficient ride and reduce emissions. They deliver more of a perk in stop-and-go city driving than freeway driving.

Japan sales started Wednesday, and are set for January in North America and February om Europe.

Toyota says it's expecting to sell 12,000 Prius cars a month in Japan, with projected annual global sales at 300,000 to 350,000 vehicles.

Kato brushed off questions about how the recent drop in oil prices may negatively affect sales. Energy and ecological worries are here to stay, he said.

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Japan pre-orders total 60,000 vehicles, and many of the buyers will have to wait several months for their Prius to arrive, as production can't keep up.

Prices in Japan, also announced Wednesday, are higher than the previous model's, starting at 2.4 million yen ($20,000), up from 2.2 million yen. Overseas prices have not yet been announced. 

By: YURI KAGEYAMA.

Review: Emerging Market Formulations & Research Unit, Flagship Records.

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