“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.