PayPal Closes Security Hole, But Now How Can It Get iPhone Users To Upgrade?
Written by Frank HayesNovember 11th, 2010
Success in mobile commerce depends on getting millions of copies of smartphone apps to customers—which is great if you get the details just right. But last Thursday (Nov. 4) PayPal had to rush out a new version of its mobile payments iPhone app. The old version—which has been downloaded more than four million times since its April release—turned out to have a security hole that could let a thief trick a user through a "man in the middle" attack. PayPal says it will cover any customer losses from fraud due to the security flaw.
That's great for PayPal users. For PayPal, it's a problem. The success of its iPhone app means there are millions of users at risk. And PayPal's promise to reimburse any fraud loss related to that risk means there's nothing to motivate users to upgrade from the old version that, to users, seems to be working just fine. Result: All the risk is on PayPal—and the only way to get out from under that risk is to irritate its customers.
This Story Is Only Available For Premium Subscribers. Click Or Login In Below To Read The Rest Of This Story.
Already a Subscriber? Login Here
Pages: 1 2
One Comment | Read PayPal Closes Security Hole, But Now How Can It Get iPhone Users To Upgrade?
Leave a Reply
Readers, specifically those who want to comment on a story:
Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Christine
November 11th, 2010 at 9:40 am
And there lies the inherent problems with “apps”. The whole point of the internet was to provide functionality and make it universally available from anywhere and anytime. The internet essentially fixed the software distribution problems that have plagued the industry since its early days. In order to differentiate itself (and to mask the fact that it is not a “cloud” company like Google but rather a “hardware” company liked Dell), Apple has pushed the idea of mobile apps onto us. Customers don’t care and ran with Apple who, truth be told, has traditionally offered superior usability and an “integrated” (some say closed…) ecosystem. BUT…the model is inherently flawed. Mobile apps are flawed and are, for all intents and purposes, a giant step back in the evolution of computing and convenience. I hope we collectively move towards HTML5 mobile apps which will have the same use and feel as native apps (in the majority of cases) but are “always up to date” and have the distribution advantages of web applications.