Bank of America customers activate 1.1 million cards on Apple Pay
Apple Pay launch partner Bank of America on Thursday revealed that nearly 800,000 of its customers had signed up for Apple's nascent mobile payments initiative, bringing 1.1 million cards to the service in the last three months.
Those figures represent a small fraction of Bank of America's nearly 60 million customers, but they are encouraging numbers given the relative newness of the platform. The bank revealed the statistics in its quarterly earning statement, though no details regarding Apple Pay transaction volume or active versus registered users were provided.
In addition to being one of Apple's launch partners, Bank of America recently began promoting Apple Pay with a series of television advertisements. Those spots promoted Apple Pay as "the new, easy, secure, smart way to pay with a simple touch."
Apple Pay is already arguably the most successful mobile payment system ever launched for physical goods and services. Despite only being available for real-world purchases to consumers with Apple's latest iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay accounted for 1% of digital payment transactions in November.
Though still officially limited to consumers in the U.S., Apple is working to expand Apple Pay to Europe and Asia, evidenced by Apple Pay-related job listings in both London and Shanghai. The company is also believed to have struck an agreement with China UnionPay, the state-owned card issuer that dominates the market in mainland China.
Those figures represent a small fraction of Bank of America's nearly 60 million customers, but they are encouraging numbers given the relative newness of the platform. The bank revealed the statistics in its quarterly earning statement, though no details regarding Apple Pay transaction volume or active versus registered users were provided.
In addition to being one of Apple's launch partners, Bank of America recently began promoting Apple Pay with a series of television advertisements. Those spots promoted Apple Pay as "the new, easy, secure, smart way to pay with a simple touch."
Apple Pay is already arguably the most successful mobile payment system ever launched for physical goods and services. Despite only being available for real-world purchases to consumers with Apple's latest iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay accounted for 1% of digital payment transactions in November.
Though still officially limited to consumers in the U.S., Apple is working to expand Apple Pay to Europe and Asia, evidenced by Apple Pay-related job listings in both London and Shanghai. The company is also believed to have struck an agreement with China UnionPay, the state-owned card issuer that dominates the market in mainland China.
Comments
Seems to me the early adopters jumped on ApplePay immediately, but there is still a massive slow- and late-adopter curve that must be climbed.
ApplePay is another "home run" for Apple. I'm buying my daughter's 4 year old MBP (I had already bought it for her 4 years ago to finish Med. school with-Hmmmmm.) and iphone 6 just so I can take advantage of Yosemite and iOS8 specifically for the ApplePay and fingerprint security. Also, considering an iPad 3 Mini for the same reasons.
I am currently running SL on an orig. intel white iMac that just will not die. It can't be updated to the latest OS. I'm also running a 4s (with a crack in the screen). I very pleased that I'm able to run iOS8 on it and take advantage of most of the new features.
I certainly don't begrudge Apple for this. I like that most of their engineers are concentrating on the current and future hardware and software. Go Apple.
Best.
P.S. I not a fan of BOA or any of the big banks. The last thing I need is a mega-bank breathing down my neck.
I don't think they have to do anything. Apple created a system that the banks are more than willing to advertise for on their own dime, and the user's get an additional convenience feature (that also helps protect them against the potential for fraud).
Apple Pay is already arguably the most successful mobile payment system ever launched...
Arguably?....
I'd definitely argue it… and will.
The term mobile is too loose a term, and has an unfortunate silent qualification built in. I would define plastic cards with magnetic stripes as being mobile. Nowadays we seem to want to append some sort of network connection to the definition, but that's simply because of how phones and computers naturally evolved. Since credit cards are, by definition, mobile, have been around for 65 years, taken most places, and are very pocketable I would say they are (and will for many, many years to come) be the most successful mobile payment system on the planet.
That said, I would bet that ?Pay's growth rate and adoption by both consumers and financial institutions makes the fastest growing mobile payment system ever created.
For those who chose not to enter credit card information on startup of iOS 8, for whatever reason, what is Apple doing to remind, educate or encourage these laggards?
I've been seeing a LOT of television commercials for ApplePay in the last few weeks by credit card companies. I'm sure Apple had a part in that.
Yes, I see those ads also. The thing missing from those ads is the part showing HOW to get the card into the ApplePay environment. I wonder if people see these ads and simply wonder what they need to do?
So then "mobile device" payment system? To align with the other device based systems such as Google Wallet etc. Cash is "arguably" the most revolutionary (ne successful) mobile payment system: breaking free as it did of barter. But this is a device site.
And what with all the well publicized security failures, identity thefts and forced replacement accounts and cards as people's accounts get compromised by various companies getting hacked or otherwise penetrated the success of credit cards might be waning. The bloom certainly went off that rose for me after my second letter in the same year.... I interpret the banks pushing these token systems for that very reason, they're getting sick of paying the thieves and are frightened people are getting tired of the replacement drama and will slow down their use of cards as I have.
I'm not so sure Apple has a hand in the ads creatively or financially. The benefits to the banks is so high that I simply don't see that happening unless Apple inked deals to get financial institutions in board that had them agree to contribute a certain amount or percentage to ad campaigns to market ?Pay.
I think that as Apple Pay evolves and propagates, we will see merchants and banks, alike, offering incentives to the personal and business consumer to use it.
Incentives like:
That's a very good point!
It would nice to see an ad that shows:
[VIDEO]
We'd need to know how many customers BoA has... which would be easy to find.
And we'd need to know the number of iPhone 6 and 6+ have been sold in America... which would be more difficult.
If we knew both of those figures... it might be easier to see if BoA's Apple Pay numbers are high or low.
But don't forget... there are now 39 banks and credit unions using Apple Pay.
So take the number of iPhone 6 and 6+ users... in America... and split it among those 39 banks.
Even though BoA is the 3rd largest bank in America... 8 of the other top 10 banks are also using Apple Pay... and then 30 more banks are too.
I'm sure Apple has sold plenty of iPhone 6 and 6+ in America... but not all of those people are BoA customers.
Or... BoA has a lot of customers... but not all of them are iPhone 6 and 6+ users. (or they just haven't signed up yet)
There are a lot of variables there
I'd definitely argue it… and will.
The term mobile is too loose a term, and has an unfortunate silent qualification built in. I would define plastic cards with magnetic stripes as being mobile. Nowadays we seem to want to append some sort of network connection to the definition, but that's simply because of how phones and computers naturally evolved. Since credit cards are, by definition, mobile, have been around for 65 years, taken most places, and are very pocketable I would say they are (and will for many, many years to come) be the most successful mobile payment system on the planet.
That said, I would bet that ?Pay's growth rate and adoption by both consumers and financial institutions makes the fastest growing mobile payment system ever created.
Man, you should change your username to PedantrY, instead.
I think those are all relevant points except for splitting the banks between the number of devices sold since one can have multiple debit and/or credit cards from any number of banks. I have 5 cards from 4 discreet banks in* ?Pay.
* In or on ?Pay?
Thank you for indirectly stating that my argument is sound. You may not think that's what you were saying, but when it comes to establishing any point accuracy is important. That said, I would argue that I was mostly playing the devil's advocate for the sake of discussion.
You're right... good call.
It is possible for a customer to have anything ranging from a single card at one bank... all the way up to multiple cards at multiple banks.
As for BoA specifically... the question still remains if BoA's 1.1 million cards is high or low.
Have we seen numbers from any other large banks for comparison?
I still go into places, like McDonald's, and have employees state that they have never seen ApplePay used...