The launch of iOS 1o for Apple iPhones includes two IoCT updates: Apple Pay enabled on mobile Safari and Siri can now help you order things.
It’s always been challenging for retailers to get consumers to the finish line with mobile e-commerce. Small screens and multiple field entries are high barriers to completed transactions as over 68% of e-commerce shopping carts are abandoned. Apple is trying to solve this problem by letting mobile websites add an Apple Pay payment option at checkout. Only time will tell if this will reunite consumers with their abandoned e-commerce shopping carts.
Back in May, Apple released Siri APIs to third-party developers to enhance Siri’s digital assistant capabilities. With iOS 10, you can now ask Siri to call a car for you using Lyft or Uber, pay your bill with Square or transcribe your messages with WeChat and WhatsApp. As more companies incorporate Siri API, in the near future you may be able to ask Siri to order you a Starbucks latte and get Uber to bring it to you.
It is rumored that this is all part of Apple’s plan to create a competitor to Amazon’s Echo, a digital assistant that allows users to use voice controls to order items from Amazon.com or get information from the internet. Apple is also enlarging Siri’s toolkit by including the Home App with iOS 10 to consolidate smart home devices. The race to build the perfect digital assistant is on and the Internet of Commerce Things is essential to the finished product.