In one week, Apple Pay already No. 1; used more than all other mobile payment systems combined

12 years ago

“Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple’s new mobile payment system had over 1 million activations in the first three days after it became available, and is now more widely used than any competing payment system,” Brandon Bailey reports for The Associated Press. “‘We’re already No. 1. We’re more than the total of the other guys,’ Cook boasted Monday during a tech industry conference, ‘and we’ve only been at it a week.’ He said Visa and MasterCard officials have told Apple that the Apple Pay system is already seeing more use than similar ‘contactless’ methods of paying for purchases.”

“Cook also said he plans to talk with Jack Ma, executive chairman of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, later this week about a possible partnership, although he offered no details. Ma told the same audience earlier Monday that he would be ‘very interested’ in teaming with Apple to bring Apple Pay to China,” Bailey reports. “Ma and Cook spoke during separate appearances on an outdoor stage on the opening night of a three-day tech conference organized by The Wall Street Journal.”

“He boasted that sales of Apple’s Mac computers are growing faster than the overall personal computer industry, which has struggled in recent years. He also touted the upcoming release of an Apple smartwatch and dropped broad hints about Apple’s work on a new television product, which has been rumored for years,” Bailey reports. “Today’s televisions haven’t advanced much technologically in the last 30 years, Cook said. ‘So I think there’s a lot to be done here.’ Cook didn’t offer specifics, but he said, ‘It’s an area where I’m optimistic that there is something great that can be done in the space.'”

Bailey reports, “Repeating a favorite dig at competitors such as Google and Facebook, Cook said Apple doesn’t collect user data or purchase information. ‘We don’t want to know what you buy. We’re not Big Brother; we’ll leave that to other people.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: In just one week, Apple Pay has already facilitated more transactions than all other ‘contact less’ payment methods combined! (Which shows how much of an epic faceplant Google Wallet has been; released over three years ago on September 19, 2011.)

Boycott CVS and Rite Aid and any other company that willfully turns off NFC in a effort to block the vastly more secure, much more private, and far easier-to-use Apple Pay service.

• Email complaints to CVS Customer Relations here.

• Email complaints to Rite Aid Customer Relations here.