Originally Posted by
blaz
It's likely that they know, but they were already deep enough into development that they couldn't back out and start over. The next-gen version will have support most likely.
(BTW, the fact that there's still magstripe-only equipment on the market being sold is why I've been saying that most places won't meet the October 2015 deadline, not by a long shot. Best case scenario is that merchant equipment gets replaced as it breaks, which will take a really long time judging from the places I visit frequently. We'll probably need the government to act if we want the transition to happen any faster, unfortunately.)