“More than 18 months after Apple Pay took the United States by storm, the smartphone giant has made only a small dent in the global payments market, snagged by technical challenges, low consumer take-up and resistance from banks,” Matt Siegel, Jeremy Wagstaff and Eric Auchard report for Reuters.
“The service is available in six countries and among a limited range of banks, though in recent weeks Apple has added four banks to its sole Singapore partner American Express; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in Australia; and Canada’s five big banks,” Siegel, Wagstaff and Auchard report. “Apple Pay usage totaled $10.9 billion last year, the vast majority of that in the United States. That is less than the annual volume of transactions in Kenya, a mobile payments pioneer, according to research firm Timetric.”
“Anecdotal evidence from Britain, China and Australia suggests Apple Pay is popular with core Apple followers, but the quality of service, and interest in it, varies significantly,” Siegel, Wagstaff and Auchard report. “pple has leveraged its huge U.S. user base to push Pay, but has met resistance in Australia, Britain and Canada where banks are building their own products. ‘Payments in general is such a complicated system with so many incumbent providers that revolutionary change like this was not going to happen very quickly,’ said Joshua Gilbert, an analyst at First Annapolis Consulting. The upshot: Apple has rolled out Pay in a dribble, adding countries and partners where it can – Hong Kong is expected to be added next – resulting in an uneven banking landscape with users and retail staff not always sure what will work and how.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Nobody in their right mind expects this to happen overnight. Inexorably, Apple Pay will grow around the world.
SEE ALSO:
Apple Pay gets big expansion in Canada – June 1, 2016
Canada is just the kind of market Apple Pay was looking for – May 11, 2016
Canadian banks, including ‘the Big Five,’ sign on for major Apple Pay expansion – May 10, 2016
Apples’ revolutionary Apple Pay expands to Canada and Australia – November 17, 2015