“Apple’s year-old mobile-payments service is expanding to more countries, banks and merchants,” Anick Jesdanun reports for The Associated Press. “Apple Pay is available in Canada starting Tuesday and in Australia on Thursday. Those are two countries where “tap” payments — tapping a phone or chip-embedded card to the store’s payment machine — are already more common than in the U.S. In those countries, however, Apple Pay is limited initially to American Express cards.”
“In the U.S., where Apple Pay started in October 2014, the service will expand Tuesday to more than 100 additional card issuers — mostly smaller banks and credit unions,” Jesdanun reports. “Apple Pay already accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover cards from most major banks. In the U.K., Tesco and TSB banks will join Apple Pay on Tuesday.”
“Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president for Apple Pay, said the company is starting with American Express in Canada and Australia because it’s both the card issuer and the payment-network operator, so coordination is easier,” Jesdanun reports. “Meanwhile, Apple is working with makers of various payment machines to bring tapping capabilities to additional merchants, small and large. When Apple Pay launched, the U.S. had 200,000 tap-capable machines. That’s expected to surpass 1.5 million this year. The growth includes about 100,000 small to medium-sized merchants each month, Apple said.”
“Apple said Tuesday that Cinnabon will add Apple Pay to all its U.S. locations next year, while Domino’s company-owned pizza stores will get it by year’s end,” Jesdanun reports. “Chili’s is installing tablets at tables so people can order and pay right there, starting in the spring.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Mmm, Cinnabon. The heroin of pastries.
Tim Cook was off by a year. 2016 will be the year of Apple Pay.
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