One reason why smartphone-based payments have not lived up to their considerable hype is that most deployments have been confined to one country at a time, led by the US. Apple Pay will take a significant step towards global relevance if, as reported, it launches in China early next year, a move which could throw its emerging challengers onto the back foot. Although Apple Pay undoubtedly injected some new life into the disappointing US m-payments sector when it went live last year, and has since come to some additional countries, it has not created the revolution some had expected in the way we pay for goods and services. While simpler mobile money systems, often SMS-based, have genuinely opened new horizons…