“Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook fired back at CVS and Rite Aid on Monday after the drugstore chains blocked the iPhone maker’s mobile payments service, saying there were plenty of other retailers around the world to sign up,” Edwin Chan reports for Reuters. “Apple Pay launched about a week ago and saw more than a million credit cards registered over the first 72 hours. It already totes up more transactions than all other ‘contact less’ payment methods combined, Cook said, citing Visa and Mastercard data.”
“News emerged over the weekend that the two retailers had opted out of Apple Pay in favor of a rival system that roughly 50 chains, including Wal-Mart and Best Buy, are developing for in-house use,” Chan reports. “‘We’ve got a lot more merchants to sign up, we’ve got a lot of banks to sign up and we’ve got the rest of the world,’ Cook told the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference, in the company’s most extensive comments on the blockade so far.”
“Cook argued on Monday that Apple Pay offered better security and privacy than competing services, and that retailers risked alienating customers by limiting choices at checkout,” Chan reports. “‘It’s a skirmish,’ Cook said in response to a question about the retailers’ moves. ‘Merchants have different objectives sometimes. But in the long arc of time, you only are relevant as a retailer or merchant if your customers love you.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Pay already totes up more transactions than all other ‘contact less’ payment methods combined.
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.
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Boycott CVS and Rite Aid – October 27, 2014
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