“Apple Pay is much more than a frictionless and secure payments service, Apple also thinks it will help accelerate the digital transformation of the banking industry,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld.
“Apple’s true intentions around Apple Pay are becoming easier to identify as the company goes through the Australian legal process in a disagreement with some (but not all) local banks,” Evans writes. “Apple points out that it has seen heightened competition in the sector in the U.S. and U.K. since launching Apple Pay… ‘Apple expects that, with a range of payment cards available in [its] wallet [product] in Australia, the same increase in competition is likely to occur in Australia as has been evident in these other jurisdictions,’ the submission said.”
Evans writes, “Apple’s already strong position in the mobile payments space means has a chance to provide additional fintech services, on its own or in partnership.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re using Apple Pay more and more. Are you?
If not, would you be more apt to use Apple Pay if you received, say, $1 to spend at the Apple Store for every $100 you spent via Apple Pay?
As we wrote last August, imagine at the special media event to introduce the next-gen iPhone, Apple CEO Tim Cook said something like this:
And, of course, the new iPhone works with Apple Pay and, starting today, for every $100 you spend using Apple Pay, you get $1 off at Apple retail and online stores. So, spend $100 on groceries using Apple Pay, you get $1. Spend $300 on a plane ticket using the Delta app, you get $3. Use Apple Pay in your ExxonMobil Speedpass+ app to buy your gas. It all adds up! By the end of the year, you’ll likely have quite a discount on your next iPad, Mac, or iPhone!
Would you use Apple Pay more if Tim Cook said something like that? We know we certainly would. So would millions of people.
Apple, give us a reason to use Apple Pay beyond looking like tech dorks in front of the line at the register. What’s the incentive to use Apple Pay? There is none besides looking like a flaming nerd. As if Apple doesn’t have any money. That, inexplicably, is how they approach Apple Pay. Hello, Tim? Eddy? Talk to some people who actually go to stores and shop for things, please.
Incentivize its use! Give Apple Pay users a percentage of every dollar spent via Apple Pay to spend at Apple Stores. Something. Anything! Get people used to using it first. Sheesh. It’s really not that difficult. It really isn’t.
And, BTW: That was written before Apple Watch made the process so seamless that nobody in line (or the cashier, half the time) even notices how or that we paid, but we still think Apple should take some of tiny portion of their cash mountain and put it to good use incentivizing (and training) their customers to use Apple Pay.
