Rewards are arguably the key driver in mobile payments.

That’s because: 1) swiping a card is as easy as tapping a phone, though dipping a card may be another matter; and 2) mobile payments in the U.S. basically means Starbucks. The rest, for now, are used only occasionally by early adopters. This will change, but when and what will it take to foment that change?

On the heels of the Samsung Pay and Android Pay launches, Apple announced last week that Apple Pay will be available at Starbucks sometime in 2016.

The Apple Pay launch at Starbucks may seem to be of questionable significance. After all, Square Wallet made a deal with Starbucks with a great deal of fanfare in 2012, but failed to offer a compelling reason to use its app instead of the Starbucks app. (The deal was canceled in 2014 after a reported $25 million was spent.) Is Apple Pay any different? Yes, according to payments guru Brian Roemmele, and the reason is rewards.

Roemmele noted that the Apple Pay-Starbucks deal is “huge” and is a direct hit to Square on Apple’s part.

“Starbucks is getting into payments directly and ultimately [will] compete with Square,” he wrote to Bank Innovation. More insult to injury for Square.

More importantly, Starbucks rewards will work through Apple Pay, Roemmele wrote. “Starbucks is using the API for reward cards and this data will be transmitted via NFC during an Apple Pay transaction. I have seen test transactions.”

The functionality will go live before the end of the second quarter of 2016, Roemmele noted. “Testing is already taking place and will announce soon.”

On top of it all, MCX’s payment technology, CurrentC is testing in Columbus, Ohio. Remember CurrentC? Tom Noyes, entrepreneur and CEO of Commerce Signals, wrote about the release of CurrentC back on Oct. 7. CurrentC is notable for avoiding the card rails Apple rides, and, therefore, offering saving merchants on fees. Its most important proponent, Noyes wrote, is Target, which will link the service to its loyalty play, Redcard. Noyes listed eight significant things about MCX/CurrentC, one of which is that the mobile wallet will be extremely friendly to merchant loyalty programs —  which seems to be the whole key, really.

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