Contactless payments without Apple Pay are now available on iPhone, but so far only in one country

The first analogue of the Apple Pay payment system has launched in Norway. The Vipps payment app is the first service to take advantage of the new, more open iOS ecosystem. Norwegians can already use Vipps for Tap to Pay transactions and online payments, and can even set the app as the default payment method on their iPhones.

Image source: Vipps

The emergence of Vipps and, in the future, other services similar to Apple Pay was made possible thanks to the commitments made by Apple in response to close attention from EU regulators.

Since its launch ten years ago, Apple Pay has been the only Tap to Pay option on iPhone. With the release of iOS 18.1, Apple gave third-party developers access to the iPhone’s NFC chip to enable contactless transactions and other features outside of the Apple Pay and Apple Wallet ecosystem. Earlier this year, Apple committed to open up the API after EU regulators ruled that Apple Pay had created a monopoly in the market.

Pressure from the EU eventually forced Apple to make the iPhone more open, including adding support for the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging protocol on the iPhone, as well as the ability to remove almost any app from the phone.

Giving access to the NFC chip is a particularly interesting case, however, as it opens up the potential for a whole host of new and useful ways to use the phone. However, this could create potential problems between competing payment and user ID storage platforms that do not interact with each other, The Verge writes.

In any case, a new page in Apple’s history began with a small financial organization from Scandinavia.