Despite growing smartphone dependence, most Americans still aren’t using the devices to pay for things.
In other countries, it’s a different story.
Places such as China and India are witnessing rapid adoption of smartphone payments. In China, for example, more than 80% of consumers used mobile payments last year, according to management consultancy Bain. In the U.S., major mobile payments apps had adoption rates of less than 10%…
Conventional methods are still winning in the U.S. Last year, 80% of consumers used credit cards for purchases, according to Bain. PayPal was the most popular nonbank option at 40% adoption but is largely used for online payments. Apple Pay had 9% adoption.
MacDailyNews Take: Now that Apple Card is available and incentivizing the use of Apple Pay, the U.S. will be catching on soon.
“Apple is finally really incentivizing the use of Apple Pay. What a great idea! 😉 ” — MacDailyNews, August 8, 2019
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. — MacDailyNews, August 6, 2015
Imagine at the special media event to introduce the next-gen iPhone next month, Apple CEO Tim Cook says 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. — MacDailyNews, August 5, 2016
There is no better way to pay than with Apple Watch and Apple Pay. Two simple things could turbocharge Apple Pay usage: Better (or actual) signage at the point of sale and incentives for using Apple Pay. Imagine Apple Pay usage if Apple simply offered $1 to spend at the Apple Store for every hundred spent via Apple Pay. — MacDailyNews, November 30, 2016
I have been using ApplePay on the Watch since it came out. AWESOME product.
The new AppleCard is awesome since you manage everything on the iPhone and it is so simple to check balances and PAY OFF balances early.
NO hiccups at all….!!
This is mainly the fault of merchants not adopting mobile payment and also too many different systems and the cost to convert. And MDN, not everybody wants the Apple card and I don’t really see how that is relevant. You don’t need that card for Apple Pay. If Apple was really serious about Apple pay they should reduce their cut to 2% or nothing.
Hammer met nail.
If Apple wants to change the world for the better, then they need to price their products and services competitively. Increasingly Timmy & Co think that they can extract more cash from merchants and end users simply because of brand loyalty. This is precisely how formerly great brands sully themselves.
Specifically what benefit does a merchant gain for incurring the additional costs of Apple payment products? The change costs are not insignificant. If a merchant is forced to implement all new POS terminals, it would be like Apple telling you to change the wall outlets in your home to accept the new Apple AC plug design which is more better. Who is going to do that eagerly?
Sure, Apple has fashion and iPhone app tie-in and claims increased efficiency and security, great. The merchants don’t see any benefit from all that, and competing credit card companies already offer incentives in some cases better than what Apple offers. The interest rates, by the way, are not stellar – same range as most large credit cards, with minimum rate at least 4.5% greater than the Fed prime rate. That’s not a bargain.
Then there is the obvious: this distraction into consumer banking is a way for Apple to datamine their users for marketing purposes. This is why the credit card agreement neatly sidesteps all the usual disclosures about user tracking and analysis and data keeping. Goldman Sachs says:
“NETWORK BENEFITS
The Network makes benefits available with your Account that are not part of this Agreement and are subject to change or cancellation. Details about Network benefits can be found in the Wallet app.”
There you go, folks. Apple isn’t doing a very good job competing against Google on the user-datamining front, so they are drifting off into consumer credit in order to better select and monetize their preferred customers. Meh.
At this point.. i can say that about 60% of my transactions are through Apple Pay, if not more..
It would be 100% if all merchants accepted Apple Pay.
Apple pay on the watch is just pure delight. .. love it.
yojimbo007 – I like you more and more as time goes by…
g…. maintain control 😉
g… maintain control
And STILL many merchants require you to punch in your own code when it should not be required with Apple Pay. VERY irritating and unnecessary. Apple is not making these merchants feel secure enough.
Yes, piss poor job indeed the Apple under Cook. Guess Arrogant Apple expects all the merchants to get butterflies and feel privileged using Apple Pay. Well, in the real world perceptions of greatness never trump what is reality and easiest for the merchant…
I find it frustrating when I try to pay with my iPhone and the merchant says that they accept ApplePay, but the cashier does’t know how to do it. I’m not sure what the cashier is supposed to do, but when the cashier says that he/she doesn’t know how to activate the POS terminal to accept my payment, I end up inserting my physical card.
I find it frustrating when some merchants tell me, “we don’t accept ApplePay, but we do accept Samsung Pay.”
That’s probably due to Samsung Pay on Galaxy devices being able to send data directly to the magnetic strip reader instead of an RFID sensor that other mobile payments use. This means older POS systems can support the system with a relatively minor SW update vs having to replace the POS system to support RFID.
Merchants don’t have to do anything different for me to pay with Apple Pay. If they take tap transactions I just use my watch. Sometimes they have never seen someone do that before. They don’t even have Apple Pay posted as an option, but it works if tap works.
Americans are so behind. They still use cheques/checks.
Only elderly people still use those. Still, it is annoying waiting on Grandma to update her ledger will in line.
“Apple Pay had 9% adoption.”
Gee, what a surprise! The only place in my rural town that accepts AP is McDonalds.
Not my favorite restaurants, pizza parlor, doctors office, county property taxes, insurance agent, dry cleaner, farm stands, department stores, auto repair, grocery stores, local butcher, beer distributor, gas stations, etc., etc.
Apple Pay is a huge failure in most places. The average credit card is accepted and RULES EVERYWHERE.
Apple realized the EPIC FAILURE of Apple Pay and CAVED to offer a credit card that will hands down be a better alternative. We shall see if the acceptance is universal and popular compared to Visa and MasterCard…
I keep hearing all these naysayers saying that there’s no difference between Apple Card and other credit cards. Of course this is what people always say about Apple products when they first arrive.
Sure, you can go into your credit card app on your phone to pay your bill, just like the Apple Card. And you can also see all your transactions and communicate with the company. But you have to dig around in an app to get at it – friction. With the Apple Card, though, there’s a lot less friction with everything. Its user-friendly and well-integrated…just like the iMac, and the iPhone and The instant gratification of having money in Apple Pay right away is kind of nice, though I still have not found a reason to use Apple Pay. But I know its there and I’m sure I will find a use for it someday.
Except your f’d if you want to change to another type phone.
I still have no reason to apply for Apple Card, but I have six reasons NOT to apply for Apple Card:
1) Cannot access account on web
2) Cannot add authorized buyer / spouse
3) Does not offer any Card Benefits like travel accident insurance or extended warranty
4) 1% cash back for physical card use will only encourage me to use Citi DoubleCash card instead which pays 2% on everything
5) Titanium is a gimmick. I don’t want a heavier wallet
6) Cannot use at Costco; they only accept Visa
well – boo hoo hoo Bryan!
At this point.. i can say that about 60% of my transactions are through Apple Pay, if not more..
It would be 100% if all merchants accepted Apple Pay.
Apple pay on the watch is just pure delight. .. love it.
This message sponsored by the Apple Fanboi Network.
Get a life idiot
fer sure. get a life idiot. says the daily fanboy
Seriously. Apple is screwing up and every day yojimbo comes here to tell us that the problems we experience are illusions. Yojimbo declares all things with a fruit sticker are perfect. Over and over and over.
MDN screen name hijacked alert!!! Please check the IP addresses and remove the offending post pretending to speak for the REAL GoeB. Thank you in advance…
The major attraction for me is higher percentage for apple payments and no foreign transaction fees.
In Europe contactless payments are the norm and apple pay on my watch worked every time. I wish it was the same here in the states. The worst business segment are restaurants. If they started using mobile devices for payment it would have a major effect in the US.
Now that Apple products can be purchased via Amazon.com would you rather get the 3% from Apple Card or 5% from the Amazon Chase visa card?
One thing that I found odd visiting the US a few months ago was the unreliability of using contactless at terminals (it failed about half the time with both an iPhone and my contactless credit card). In other countries, a terminal accepting contactless will also accept Apple/Android/Samsung Pay with no problem.
A bit of research gives a hint as to why this might be so. (Someone with more knowledge please correct.) The token generation technology behind chip cards, EMV, is also used to generate a token of your credit card when you use PayWave usually. However, a number of US banks have not fully implemented EMV in their infrastructure so still rely on static magnetic strips. In an effort to further deploy contactless payments, there’s a legacy mode in the US that allows contactless cards (and their Apple Pay equivalents?) to send their unencrypted strip over NFC to bypass EMV. No foreign-issued cards have this mode enabled.
The US will transition over to a modern contactless payment infrastructure, eventually. It’ll be fantastic for Americans when that time happens.
In the meantime, the naysayers who say that Apple Pay has no real-world use just need to go to Canada or the EU to see how useful Apple Pay actually is.
Yes! The U.S.A. is a dinosaur in payments, gun violence, renewable energy, voting rights, public health care, public education, pollution control, the metric system, etc. etc.
Their corrupt president, and indeed their money fuelled politics, leaves a poorly informed electorate unwilling to fund anything in the public interest.
The U.S.A. is a dinosaur in:
“Gun violence” The Second Amendment allows for gun ownership banned in your country. The “violence” is a direct result of criminals, not guns.
“Renewable energy,” USA leads the world, Clueless.
“Voting rights” Hey brainless, our voting rights are second to NONE.
“Public health care” We are not a socialist nation and the free market rules.
“Public education” We spend twice per student on education than the second G7 nation. Get your facts straight.
“Pollution control” Brainless again, the USA spends more and has stricter environmental policies the envy of the world.
“Metric system” F*ck the metric system you European SNOB! Our system of measurement works just fine…
Goer:
So you are suggesting that guns are not a factor in the US homicide rate being five times higher than in the UK (4.9 vs. 0.9 per 100,000) and most other developed countries. I do not accept that Americans are are more likely to be criminals than other nationalities.
The US gets 14% of its energy from renewable sources. Among the countries over 95% are Zambia, Uruguay, and Tajikistan. How do we lead the world? Give me a clue.
In public health care, I agree that we are the only developed country on earth that rations health care based on personal wealth. I see letting poor people die as a bug, not a feature.
Per pupil expenditures in the US are about $12,800, lower than Norway. The average for all 36 Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation countries is $9500. The only G-8 country below that average is Italy. Get your facts straight.
The US emits 2489 thousand metric tons of pollutants. Among other modern industrial nations, the UK emits 321, Germany 315, and Japan 695. I do not think they envy us.
The Imperial System of measurements works just fine if you aren’t interested in buying or selling stuff to any other country.
Meh…
Yeah, I will hoping on the first plane to the EU TO witness Apple Pay working properly A.S.A.P. /s…