Where Does Apple Pay Fall Short?

By: Dan Woods

Apple has a long history of making things work that others have previously tried. With the iPod and the iPad, Apple brought ideas to life that many smart people had been banging away at for a while. The latest attempt to succeed where others have stalled is in the area of the mobile wallet. Almost every company who has a direct relationship with consumers will have to come to terms with Apple’s mobile payment system (called Apple Pay), either adopting it, or rejecting it for a good reason.

This story provides a high level guide to Apple Pay, explaining where the technology will be a good fit and where it will fall short. The bottom line: Using Apple Pay, like using other third party mobile wallets, has one huge flaw: You give up the direct relationship with the customer. If you are seeking to do more than accept money from consumers you must have a way, besides Apple Pay, of creating and maintaining that direct relationship in a mutually beneficial manner.

Here’s my analysis.

The Role of the Mobile Wallet

Mobile wallets are often explained ineptly and so they seem more complicated than they are. Here’s how a mobile wallet works:

• Just like a regular wallet, a mobile wallet is a place you can keep track of payment cards, loyalty cards, coupons and more.
• You can link your mobile wallet to a variety of payment sources on an as-needed basis.
• You can then use these linked accounts to make purchases.
• The transfer of money happens through an exchange of information between your mobile device and a retailer who has a system that is ready to accept money from a mobile wallet.

Google has offered a mobile wallet for several years, but it hasn’t really gained wide acceptance. Amazon has extended its capabilities to let people use their Amazon accounts like a digital wallet that works on various websites. There is another mobile wallet technology called SoftCard, formerly ISIS, that is sponsored by a consortium of wireless companies including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Paypal also has a mobile wallet app, but few users have adopted it. Square, the creator of the little white credit card “swiper” you attach to your phone also attempted to launch a mobile wallet but recently gave up and exited the space.

Now with the launch of the iPhone 6, Apple has introduced Apple Pay that will let you use the new iPhones and your thumbprint to pay at a limited number of retailers. At the same time, Apple also announced the Apple Watch as yet another way to pay, although it must be linked to an iPhone in order to do so. This is causing some confusion. You will be able to use Apple’s wallet with the Apple Watch, but also with the iPhone 6, and probably through the web. The biometric thumbprint capability is cool, but it’s a bit of a red herring since you will be also able to identify yourself and enable the wallet using all sorts of credentials. Usernames and passwords will still be important, but other biometrics will also come along. The key thing a mobile wallet needs to know is that it is you asking to spend the money.

Any mobile wallet will succeed or fail because people like the convenience of using the wallet to pay and because of the value added services – like offers, loyalty and coupons – that are part of the user experience. In this regard, Apple’s technology isn’t particularly innovative and is limited to only the payment portion of the customer interaction. The biggest advantages Apple does have are its installed base of hundreds of millions of iPhone users, its brand, and the ability to design and market a first class customer experience using its wallet. Only time will tell if that is enough., but even then, that is only half the battle.

Mobile wallets are useless unless you have retailers that accept them. Convincing retailers to procure the hardware and do the technology work necessary to enable mobile payment acceptance is a key challenge in this space. Making the mobile wallet attractive to customers is another challenge for Apple and the other wallet vendors since it has become clear that just enabling payment is not enough to drive adoption. Mobile payment adoption has not been rapid for many important reasons and it is far from clear that Apple will be able to overcome the barriers any more effectively than the other vendors.

The Case Against Third Party Wallets

The problem is that retailers don’t have much to gain from accepting money from a mobile wallet. Apple may be able to over come this by getting enough consumers excited about using a mobile wallet that retailers are forced to sign up. That said, this has not happened with the Google Wallet which has been available for over three years as a way to pay at the very same retailers as Apple Pay, including McDonalds, CVS and others. Did you know that was possible? Few people do. That’s the problem.

For Apple to succeed it once again must create a multi-sided platform that grows more valuable as the number of participants on both sides grows. Boston University Professor and MIT Researcher Marshall Van Alstyne has described the economics of platform creation in some excellent presentations available on SlideShare. His fundamental point is that platforms that allow the creation of multi-sided ecosystems beat products and create more value for the platform provider. Apple has a strong shot at getting consumers on board, but it must now add the retailers to get a platform going.

Apple may be able to pull it off. After all, it has generated new excitement about products that were previously not considered exciting. I think there is a huge untapped potential to get consumers excited about using a mobile wallet.

I remember when I first got the Starbuck’s app and I was able to pay using my phone. I thought it was really fun. At first I was not sure why. I had a gold Starbuck’s loyalty card that I could use just as easily. The Starbuck’s app just moved the transfer of information from the swipe of the card to a scan of my phone. But somehow it felt cool to use the phone — like I was breaking new ground.

But quickly other advantages of the Starbuck’s app became apparent. I could see the balance of money I had in the wallet. I got instant feedback about my available balance. I also could see the status of my loyalty program so I was more aware of how close I was to a new reward. Just recently the app was updated to allow me to leave a tip. The only false note has been when, after a recent upgrade, the store locator function became a lot less useful. (Note to Starbucks development team: What happened? Did you switch to Apple Maps or something dumb like that?)

Notice what happened here. The new way to pay is clearly cool and fun. But the ability to explore more dimensions of my relationship with Starbuck’s added lots more value. Starbucks also got out of the business of having to send loyalty cards around, an expensive endeavor. Now, after four years of the availability of the app, Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ chairman, president and chief executive, said that 15 percent of Starbuck’s revenue comes through its mobile channel during a July 24, 2014 conference call to discuss the company’s earnings for its fiscal third quarter (ending June 2014).

For Starbucks to use the Apple wallet, the customer would have to jump from the Starbuck’s app into the Apple App and then come back. This is not a recipe for a pleasing user experience. Other retailers with their own apps are not going to want to do this either.

Here’s the challenge facing Apple in attracting retailers. Will it be possible to create a fully dimensional loyalty program through the wallet? In other words, will Apple allow vendors using the wallet to create the same type of relationship that Starbuck’s created with me? Remember, loyalty programs are just one way of enhancing a wallet. Many more will come down the line.

Right now the answer is no. Apple and many of the other third-party wallets don’t allow the creation of this multi-dimensional relationship. When a retailer accepts an Apple Pay for payment, they get only the money — just like a cash or a credit card transaction. Remember, when you swipe a credit card, you just give the vendor your credit card number, not your personal information. Apple Pay works the same way.

Is it possible that Apple will succeed in attracting retailers because consumers demand it? Possibly. But even if Apple pulls off creating a two-sided platform, retailers still have to face the challenge of creating a richer relationship with customers.

Other Choices for Mobile Payments

Retailers have two choices to create a multi-dimensional relationship that includes the ability to pay: go it alone or use an embedded platform.

Starbuck’s went it alone. They were so early to market they really didn’t have a choice. The development team at Starbucks created a wallet by interfacing with credit and debit cards to fund the wallet using the payment APIs that allowed access to each payment mechanism. This worked great for Starbucks but few companies have a development team that can pull this off. The reward for Starbucks for making this investment is the rich relationship with the customer that surrounds payments previously described.

The second choice, one made by Subway and MCX – a huge consortium of retailers that includes Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Wendy’s, Sears and many others – is to use a white label mobile payment platform like Paydiant. In this model, the retailer can build mobile payments, offers and loyalty into their own apps but keep control of the customer relationship.

Paydiant, which competes with other embedded payment platforms like those from Gemalto or C-SAM (recently acquired by Mastercard), provides a development “toolkit” that handles all the complexities of creating a wallet and integrating with a retailer’s point of sale environment. You don’t have to do the work that Starbucks did in going it alone. Here’s what a white label mobile wallet platform offers:

• The ability to create a wallet and fund it through multiple payment mechanisms.
• The ability to allow a user to identify themselves using a password, biometrics, PIN or any other mechanism that is allowed by the devices on which the app runs.
• A platform for mobile offer management, delivery and redemption.
• A fully integrated mobile loyalty system or the ability to easily integrate an existing loyalty platform
• The ability to use existing e-commerce credentials to login to the wallet.
• The ability to support multiple payment acceptance technologies so that the QR code, NFC, Bluetooth, or other mechanisms can be leveraged to initiate a payment.
• The ability to provide a branded web interface to manage the wallet that can be enhanced with other loyalty features.
• A steady stream of updates to keep up with security and other changes to the underlying payment mechanisms.
• The ability to use existing relationships with payment processing vendors such as First Data, Vantiv, gift card providers and others
• Addition of new methods of providing credentials and payment mechanisms as they become available.

Chris Gardner, Co-Founder of Paydiant

The Subway mobile application developed by Paydiant provides mobile payments for both in-store and remote transactions. Credit, debit and gift cards are all supported payment types. The platform also integrated with Subway’s loyalty platform so that consumers can earn loyalty points for all of their purchases through the mobile app. Finally the mobile app is directly integrated with Subway’s ordering platform so mobile users can order their sandwiches from their phone, pay for their order and simply gift their name and pick their food when they arrive at the restaurant. These are types of value-added services that could drive mobile wallet adoption.

The MCX consortium collectively represents over 20 percent of all transactions in the United States. MCX selected Paydiant earlier this year to power its mobile wallet platform so that the members of MCX can have better control over payments, their mobile brand and the mobile customer experience. They are using this platform to create the kind of rich experience that Starbuck’s has created and to extend it in new ways. And, they don’t give up the valuable data about their customers’ buying activity to Apple or Google or another wallet company.

“To the world’s largest retailers, leveraging the mobile experience to strengthen the customer experience and drive loyalty is a strategic imperative,” said Chris Gardner co-founder of Paydiant. “And when access to a customer’s spending history is hanging in the balance, it is clear that most retailers will not be willing to concede this to others – no matter who they are.”

What are the additional possibilities? Here are some things under development at a variety of companies in addition to loyalty programs:

Commerce services:

• Order food or other items ahead of a visit to a store for fast pickup.
• Create shopping lists
• Pick groceries for delivery
• Mobile commerce and shopping

Promotions:

• Discounts
• Offers
• Coupons
• Contests and sweepstakes
• Geolocation-based offers

Advanced data analytics

• Mobile gives retailers an even deeper understanding of the customer that can be used to design and optimize marketing and promotional programs.

Now Apple and the other third-party wallet vendors could imitate this platform approach by offering a platform that enabled some of these richer customer interactions like offers and loyalty. But that would run directly counter to Apple’s claims they are not interested in making a business out of a retailer’s data and customer behavior. And if you accept that retailers want to continue to own the customer experience, the very un-Apple possibility of a solution where Apple did not completely control the user experience emerges. Ultimately, I think this outcome is unlikely because of the long history of retailer reluctance to share customer data and ongoing consumer privacy concerns.

What Mobile Wallet Technology Fits Your Sweet Spot?

As usual, the key to making the right decision rests on knowing who you are and what your goals are. Many retailers will be happy to put another sticker on their front door or their cash register that says “Apple Wallet accepted here” and be able to take money that way – assuming it makes it easier to spend money at their store. Could Apple succeed just on this basis — by an up swell in consumer enthusiasm? It’s possible.

But even if Apple does succeed and many retailers embrace Apple Pay, it still leaves those retailers without ownership of a richer experience surrounding a wallet. Remember, retailers can both accept Apple Pay and also create and promote their own wallet. There are four criteria that will drive a vendor to deploy its own branded mobile wallet:

• The retailer is using mobile as a strategic marketing channel
• The retailer wants to leverage their existing POS equipment and avoid costly upgrades
• The retailer has a popular loyalty program using plastic cards.
• The retailer has their own payment instruments like private label cards
• The retailer can leverage mobile to streamline the customer experience

The more a vendor satisfies these criteria, the more it needs its own mobile wallet.

Will Apple succeed? Probably more than Google has. Will Apple change the way that people buy just the way it has changed the way people listen to music and user their phones? In my view, no, not until they have more to offer vendors than the ability to allow consumers to pay.

Credit:http://www.forbes.com/sites/danwoods/2014/10/08/where-does-apple-pay-fall-short/

Apple Pay vs. Google Wallet: Why Apple, Inc. Will Win The Mobile Payment War

By Evan Niu, CFA

In line with Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) philosophy that being the best trumps being the first, Apple Pay was unveiled last month and is set to roll out this month. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) (NASDAQ: GOOGL  ) was one of the first tech heavyweights to jump into the mobile payment space, launching Google Wallet way back in September 2011.

Three years later as Apple is preparing its own entry, the odds are stacked in its favor. As both services use near-field communications (NFC) as the underlying data transmission technology, this isn't about any technological advantage. It's about everything else.

Here are all the areas where Google could have done better, and how Apple stands apart.

Partners

Apple's list of launch partners for Apple Pay is rather expansive. This list includes the 3 dominant payment networks and 6 card-issuing banks. It's a veritable who's-who in the financial sector, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, and Wells Fargo, and they're all onboard.

Source: Apple.

In contrast, Google had just one card issuer partner (Citi) and one payment network partner (MasterCard) at launch, although it added Visa and American Express to the mix a year later. Wireless carriers were a significant hurdle to Google Wallet, in some cases blocking the app. Google Wallet founding engineer Jonathan Wall once said, "With Google Wallet, we had one point of failure -- the carriers."

Even today, only Sprint supports Google Wallet. Android OEMs are still far more susceptible to carrier control, as they still require carrier approval for software updates. Meanwhile, Apple is able to distribute software updates independently of carriers, and is generally capable of operating outside of their jurisdiction.

With an industry as large as payment processing, with a plethora of tiny fees behind the scenes as payments make their way to the final destination, you need to get the big financial players onboard while cutting carriers out of the loop. That's exactly what Apple has done.

Economics

Google is notorious for generously sharing revenue with partners in most aspects of its business, and payments are no different. In fact, Google could be too generous with sharing payments-related revenue. Last summer, Bloomberg Businessweek profiled Google Wallet, noting that the search giant pays such hefty fees to credit card companies that it loses money on each transaction. That's made the division something of a money pit. Tepid consumer adoption also didn't help.

Source: Google.

On the other hand, Apple has negotiated deeply discounted fees from the financial institutions. The institutions are granting Apple the "card present" rate, which is lower than the "card not present" rate, due to reduced risk of fraud (more on this later). The company has even reportedly scored a 15 to 25 basis point discount on the normal "card present" rate, which is approximately 1.5%. Additionally, Bloombergreported last month that Apple would collect fees on each transaction.

It's not as if Apple is looking to Apple Pay as a new revenue stream for growth. Rather, it will likely use it as a moat-building tool like iTunes, which Apple has long maintained operates around breakeven. So long as Apple Pay can operate at breakeven or slightly cash flow positive, the service will have an economically viable model to sustain itself, unlike Google.

Privacy

Recently, Apple has been taking a hard stance on privacy. Tim Cook recently penned a letteron the matter, not so subtly taking jabs at Google's ad-based search business. Privacy was also detailed at length during Apple Pay's introduction, as Apple will not collect any data about Apple Pay transactions.

Source: Apple.

Google's inevitable goal with Google Wallet was to collect data on purchase behavior, in order to increase the relevance of targeted product ads. But that only happens if consumers adopt the service, which they haven't.

It's debatable how much this type of privacy matters to the average consumer. After all, most people are accustomed to enduring ads in exchange for free services, and sacrificing some level of privacy is just par for the course. Still, Apple is hoping that consumers start caring more about their personal data.

Security

The key to Apple getting discounted rates was that it agreed to bear some of the fraud risk. The company is comfortable doing so because it has biometric security in the form of Touch ID, and is implementing a tokenization system for added security.

Tokenization masks the underlying credit card number and instead uses a randomly generated number. These tokens can be used once, or transaction-specific, which makes them powerful security tools against hackers and criminals. This also makes life easier for merchants, reducing the security requirements around storing actual card numbers.

Google Wallet does support tokenization, but Google uses a cloud-based tokenization process. That reintroduces other security risks since payment data is being stored on Google's servers as opposed to locally on the device-level. Additionally, the platform's hardware fragmentation means that Google Wallet's feature set is not ubiquitous. Some Android phones have NFC chips; others do not. Some Android phones have secure elements; others do not.

To be clear, Apple didn't invent tokenization (although it has patent applications related to tokenization dating back as early as 2009). Tokenization has been aroud for ages, but embracing it to this extent by having integrated hardware and software gives Apple Pay much stronger security compared to Google Wallet, which in turn builds consumer trust.

Experience

This is arguably Apple's greatest advantage. The company has always prided itself on offering the simplest and most elegant user experience. From a user perspective, the payment process couldn't be simpler thanks to the improved performance of the Touch ID sensors in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Source: Apple.

Since the biggest challenge to mobile payments has always been improving the payment experience, which is already fairly simple, the hurdle is quite high. Unlocking your phone and entering a PIN is only modestly faster than swiping your card. But merely holding your finger on a sensor, without having to unlock your iPhone, is even modestly faster still.

Winner: Apple Pay

Apple has put together all of the pieces of the payment puzzle into a cohesive solution. There aren't any visible weaknesses in its strategy other than conveying the value proposition to consumers, which Apple's marketing department will take care of.

Google Wallet is widely considered a failure from numerous perspectives, which gives a key opening for Apple to take advantage of three years later.

Credit: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/10/06/apple-pay-vs-google-wallet-why-apple-inc-will-win.aspx

Cell phone revolution shakes Silicon Valley; HP, eBay Inc rush to battle Apple, Google

Companies such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and eBay Inc. are scrambling to regain footing to compete against mobile-savvy trendsetters like Apple and Google. (Reuters)

SUMMARY

Gadgets aren't just changing the way we live and work.

Smartphones, tablets and other gadgets aren't just changing the way we live and work. They are shaking up Silicon Valley's balance of power and splitting up businesses. Long-established companies such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and eBay Inc. are scrambling to regain their footing to better compete against mobile-savvy trendsetters like Apple and Google, as well as rising technology stars that have built businesses around ''cloud computing.''

That term covers a swath of Internet-driven services that shifted technology from the days software users paid a one-time fee to buy and install programs on individual machines where they also stored all their data on hard drives. But with the advent of the ''cloud,'' people can now rent software to use over the Internet. This enables customers to access documents, pictures and other vital information from any kind of Internet-connected device, a convenience that's become a necessity during the past few years as people increasingly rely on smartphones and tablets instead of laptop and desktop computers.

Business software makers such as Salesforce.com Inc., VMware Inc. and Workday Inc. built their entire business models around the cloud. All have delivered impressive revenue growth that turned their stocks into hot commodities. Online storage services Dropbox and Box have yet to go public. But they have been minted with big valuations from venture capitalists who believe they will thrive amid the increased usage of mobile devices and cloud-computing services. Meanwhile, Apple Inc. and Google Inc. are prospering from the rise of mobile devices now that their competing software systems - iOS and Android - run most of the smartphones and tablets in the world. Apple now reigns as the world's most valuable company at roughly $600 billion while Google ranks third at about $400 billion.

Google is developing another way to make money off the cloud-computing movement: leasing some of the servers in its data centers to mobile application and Web service providers. Amazon.com Inc. has been doing the same thing for an even longer period of time, enabling providers to develop and introduce new cloud computing services without having to spend a lot of money on servers sold by the likes of HP, IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp.

The rise in mobile popularity has taken a big bite out of personal computer sales. That's slammed Silicon Valley pioneer HP, once the world's biggest seller of PCs.

Since Apple ignited the tablet market with the 2010 release of the iPad, the annual revenue in HP's personal computer division has plunged by more than 20 percent. That downturn is a key reason why HP's market value has fallen by about $55 billion, or 40 percent, since the iPad's release. In an effort to adapt, HP said Monday that it will split off its PC and printer operations and form a separate company tailored to business software and services for the cloud-computing age. The spin-off is something HP originally explored three years ago only to back off after CEO Meg Whitman concluded the company would be stronger if it held on to the PC division.

That conclusion reflected a long-standing belief that companies are generally better off when they have an array of products to appeal to the various needs of different customers.

HP and other large companies are ''struggling to compete against younger upstarts,'' says long-time Silicon Valley observer Paul Saffo. ''Once upon a time, scale and size were a competitive advantage. Now, they are a problem.''

Last week online marketplace eBay announced a similar spinoff. After rejecting the notion earlier this year, it decided to unleash its online payment service, PayPal, to give it a better chance to compete against threats posed by other mobile payment options. Most analysts believe Apple's decision to introduce its own mobile payment service, Apple Pay, on the new iPhones released last month prompted eBay to finally cut PayPal loose.

''Is this the beginning of a trend?'' wonders Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research. ''We saw a lot of tech firms become conglomerates. At a certain point in any market, the pendulum starts to swing back the other way. You start to sell off pieces because it becomes unmanageable as a business.''

Yahoo Inc., a long-struggling company that built one of the Internet's best-known brands, currently faces pressure from activist investor Starboard Value LP to make changes such as spinning off its lucrative stakes in two Asian companies, Alibaba Holding Group and Yahoo Japan. Since Starboard urged the company to take action in a letter late last month, Yahoo has only said it will explore its options and maintain an ''open dialogue'' with all shareholders.

Even though both HP and eBay dawdled with their spinoffs, it's probably a good sign that they both finally got around to doing it, says technology analyst Rob Enderle. Investors evidently think so too. EBay's stock price surged by more than 7 percent on the day the PayPal spinoff was announced, while HP's shares gained nearly 5 percent after the company disclosed plans to part with its PC division.

''The companies are at least trying to evolve to address the threat, which is a good sign because the change in technology is accelerating,'' Enderle says.

Credit: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/cell-phone-revolution-shakes-silicon-valley-hp-ebay-inc-rush-to-battle-apple-google/1296112/0

BlackBerry Passport Tips And Tricks: New BB10.3 Features & How To Use Them

BY: Richard Goodwin

The BlackBerry 10.3 update on the BlackBerry Passport is absolutely HUGE, bringing with it an myriad of new features. Here’s how they work

The BlackBerry Passport is one of the most talked about handsets of 2014 – and for good reason, too. The design is insane by modern conventions, but it works. It uses a physical QWERTY keyboard that doubles as a trackpad, which, again, sounds utterly bizarre, but it works. And it’s powered by one of the most powerful (and underrated) platforms on the planet, BlackBerry 10.3. 

I recently filed my BlackBerry Passport review and gave the handset a resounding two-thumbs up (4.5 out of 5). Needless to say I was very impressed by this handset. BlackBerry really pushed the boat out this time around, introducing a plethora of high-end hardware and a raft of useful and hugely innovative features like BlackBerry Blend, a versatile QWERTY keyboard, built in support forAndroid applications and plenty more besides.  

BB10.3 has A LOT of new features and because it’s not a widely used platform (at least, not yet –– Passport sales might see to this) many of its unique, core features haven’t been properly detailed and explained –– I missed two HUGE ones in my review, for instance. So, with this in mind I felt compelled to do an article highlighting BB10.3’s many unique features and attributes, a lot of which are completely unique to BlackBerry and cannot be found elsewhere (hello, BlackBerry Blend). But, if I do miss any features or tricks or things you’ve found interesting either inside BB10.3 or aboard the Passport, feel free to share them in the comments section below.

BlackBerry Blend

Put simply: this is an absolute KILLER feature. Basically, BlackBerry Blend allows you to pick up emails, texts and BBMs on a PC, MAC or tablet when you’re away from your phone (or can’t be bothered to take it out of your pocket). BlackBerry Blend works across Wi-Fi, mobile data and via USB. The big deal here though is obviously the fact that Blend works on 3G and 4G, as this technically means –– although, please note, I haven’t tested this out myself –– that you can access your BlackBerry from a PC or tablet anywhere in the world, providing you have Blend installed and your BlackBerry, wherever it is, is switched on. 

What You’ll Need To Run BlackBerry Blend: 

• BlackBerry 10 OS 10.3 or later
• Computer using Windows 7 and later or Mac OS X 10.7 and later
• Tablet using Android 4.4 or later or iOS 7.0 or later
• IPv6 networking enabled

Got all that? Right, now all you need to do is visit THIS WEB ADDRESS and download and install BlackBerry Blend on your tablet or PC. The setup process itself is a four-stage affair, so once it’s downloaded, simply click through the steps and you’re done – it should take no more than five minutes.

Next, do this:

• On your computer or tablet, open BlackBerry Blend
• If your device is connected to your computer using a USB cable, click USB Cable Connection
• If your computer or tablet is connected to a Wi-Fi network or the mobile network, click Wireless
• When prompted, sign with your BlackBerry ID
• After a connection is made, verify that the passkey on your device matches the passkey on your computer or tablet
• If your device is password protected, type your password
• Optionally, click Remain signed in if you do not want to enter your password again when connecting to BlackBerry Blend
• Congrats! You’re now officially a BlackBerry Blend user. 

Installing Android Apps On BlackBerry Passport

The BlackBerry Passport and BlackBerry 10.3 OS have nothing to do with Google or its Android platform. But thanks to the power of QNX, BlackBerry users can install Android applications directly onto BB10.3-powered units like the BlackBerry Passport (note: older versions of the OS require you to side-load the applications). This means all you have to do to get Android applications (things like Chrome, Drive and Instagram) up and running on your BlackBerry Passport is download a client like SNAP –– SNAP gives you full access to most of Google Play’s applications direct from your BlackBerry Passport, which, obviously, is bloody awesome –– or browse through the numerous third-party stores that offer APK files for BB10, such as:

• 1mobile Market
• APK Train (website)
• Snap APK Downloader 

Improved Active Frames

BlackBerry 10 has always had pretty decent multitasking, largely thanks to QNX and Active Frames. Prior to BB10.3, your most recent applications occupied the top left hand corner within Active Frames. Inside BB10.3, however, you’re free to rearrange the Active Frames as you like, meaning you can open your eight favorite applications and have them remain in exactly the same spot, which is great for quickly checking things throughout the day. 

Lock Screen Notifications + More Information

This isn’t a new feature to be fair but BlackBerry has added in some new functionality which allows you to see more of what’s contained inside any given notification be it a BBM, a Tweet or an email. For instance, say somebody @’s you on Twitter, this will appear in the BlackBerry Hub, obviously, but it will also appear on your Passport’s lockscreen too. And if you tap on the lockscreen notification it will expand to reveal more details about the tweet, as you can see in the below image:

Digsby

IM, Email, and Social Networks in one easy to use application!

http://kvors.com/click/?s=88377&c=89569&subid=21039

BlackBerry Assistant 

Like Siri and Google Now, AND Cortana, BlackBerry Assistant is a personal assistant and like the aforementioned services it too can make appointments for you, read out texts and emails aloud (ideal if you’re driving), take notes, and set up meetings and reminders in your calendar application. This is BlackBerry’s first attempt at a digital assistant, so the company has sensibly kept the features-list simple and essential –– there are no witty remarks or quips, just useful features housed inside a well presented application. 

Universal Search

BlackBerry has always had decent universal search, but in BB10.3 it integrates with BlackBerry Assistant too, meaning you can quickly add a calendar event or reminder just by typing a few short commands – typing, “Cal,” for instance, brings up options for both calling people and adding calendar appointments. You can also just start typing something on the Passport, say, Alien: Isolation, for instance, and then select Twitter or Facebook, Bing or Google to search there for whatever you’re looking for.

Digsby

IM, Email, and Social Networks in one easy to use application!

http://kvors.com/click/?s=88377&c=89569&subid=21039

Speaking of Calendars, if you’re in a meeting the Passport will know you are and adjust its settings accordingly – i.e. silence the ringtone.

That’s it for now. There’s a load of camera stuff and some things related to the BlackBerry Hub that I wanted to include, but I’ll save these for an update in the coming days. Until then, I hope you found this little selection of tips and tricks helpful. Also, as I said in the opening paragraph – if you have any tricks of your own you’ve discovered, feel free to share them in the comments below.

Credit: http://www.knowyourmobile.com/mobile-phones/blackberry-passport/22752/blackberry-passport-tips-and-tricks-new-bb103-features-how