“Apple Pay now dominates U.S. mobile payments and forms a foundation of trust from which the company can build other digital services,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld:
eMarketer reports that 30% of U.S. smartphone users will use a mobile payments app with 30.3 million Americans now choosing to use Apple Pay. 24% of US iPhone users have used Apple Pay compared to 47% of international users.
These numbers suggest that U.S. consumers (like consumers everywhere else) have become more accustomed to using mobile payment systems. It also hints that they are choosing to use Apple Pay at a faster rate than other payment systems.
Starbucks had been the leading mobile payment service in the U.S., but it has now been surpassed by Apple Pay, according to eMarketer.
Why does that matter? Oddly enough, it’s no longer really about payments, but more about building consumer trust… Apple (and others) can now find new services and business models that can be built on that trust.
MacDailyNews Take: As Apple Card builds upon Apple Pay, and (finally really) incentivizes its use with Apple Card Daily Cash, Apple Wallet, and Apple Pay Cash, Apple has laid the foundation for an Apple Debit Card and, if they desire, Apple Bank (although aversion to heavy regulation may have the good ship Apple steering clear of that iceberg).
Regardless, secure, trusted Apple Pay / Apple Card / Apple Pay Cash / etc. are all more reasons to join and stay within the Apple ecosystem which grows richer in breadth and depth with each new service offering.
When restaurants in the US finally provide mobile units when you can pay at your table, then the use of mobile payments will skyrocket. For me that is the biggest area when you see zero uptake and I live 20 miles from Silicon Valley!
For sure on that!
A few places do now (Applebee’s & Olive Garden, just to name a couple). They have those goofy Ziosk touch screen devices and they do accept Apple Pay.
I would use ApplePay w/ Apple Card on every single transaction if not for the lack of vendor support for it. Paying at the (gas) pump being the biggest for me–but hunting for Apple Pay at the pump equipped locations is so damn spotty. I use apple maps to try an identify/find AP locations but some only take it inside and wireless is blocked at the pump (which you’d think gas stations would be for w/ all issues they have w/ compromising customers cards to skimmers!). I’ve found stations that clearly have the wireless/AP capability that simply have it turned off. Finding way too many stores who have the NFC capability but are blocking it for whatever reason. And then there’s stores Publix, Walmart and a ton of restaurants just refuse to use it. Frustrating. It’s a PITA but i usually have to plan ahead and many times go out of my way to find and use AP friendly stores.
I continually ask the cashiers and managers at Publix (popular grocery store chain in the Southeast) when they are going to start accepting Pay. They don’t think it will happen anytime soon, although the new systems they recently put in last year allow for Samsung Pay. So, I assume they have the capability but have Pay disabled for some reason. One manager said that the cost for Pay was too high. Again, I don’t see how that is the case. I thought Apple was taking a very small transactional fee compared to other credit card companies?
And I’ve had very little luck finding any gas stations that take Pay. Hopefully, this changes sooner than later!
The most consistent pay at the pump stores are Wawa, Circle K, Loves and some Pilots. Regarding Publix–as much as they overcharge for groceries, they have no room to talk regarding AP cost being too high. Publix like to control everything–they just introduced a code scan pay system similar to walmart where you have your card loaded to their app to pay.
There already is an Apple Bank in NYC.
I have found many terminals without an ApplePay sign take it. I stopped at a little roadside convenience store in the middle of New Mexico, they took it. It’s happening, it will soon be everywhere.
We used Apple Pay at a fruit stand in the middle of orchards in Adams County in PA.
I also am finding (to my pleasant surprise) when a small vendor takes it but the mega-chain does not. And often they don’t even know until I show them.
I am also dismayed at how different the Apple Pay user experience is at different locations. I don’t know if each merchant gets to set the rules or if it is the payment processing system. Sometimes I sign, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I have to tell in advance its Apply Pay, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I can use my Debit card as a credit card (without a PIN), sometimes I can’t.
To me both of these phenomena come down to Apple needed to take more control of the end to end experience. I’m not saying own the POS hardware, but maybe there should be some guidelines that processors and merchants have to follow to be able to accept Apple Pay. At a minimum, some hard cards/quick reference guides for the merchants would go a long way–if for nothing else, just explain what Apple Pay is.
This same philosophy needs to be extended to Car Play and Apple TV where integration with a 3rd party can make or break the experience.