Tim Cook calls 2015 the 'year of Apple Pay' as service takes over contactless payments market
Apple Pay now accounts for two out of every three dollars processed through contactless payment systems, a huge achievement for Apple's NFC-based solution that debuted less than three months ago.
During Apple's quarterly conference call for the first quarter of 2015, company CEO Tim Cook announced huge uptake for Apple Pay since its activation in October, saying he expects even more growth as the year progresses.
"We are more confident than ever that 2015 will be the year of Apple Pay," Cook said.
The statistics up to this point are impressive. Initially, 500 banks and financial institutions pledged support for the service, but that number has swelled to around 750, with even more requesting to partner up. Discussing current retail partners, Cook said Apple Pay now represents 80 percent of contactless transactions at Panera Bread, while upscale grocer Whole Foods saw a 400 percent increase in contactless payments since the service launched.
Cook expressed surprise at seeing the rapid rate of Apple Pay adoption at retailers willing to update their point-of-sale terminals during the busy holiday season, a time when companies usually put such efforts on hold.
It was reported earlier today Apple Pay launched at 200,000 self-service stations across the U.S., including vending machines, commercial laundry machines, parking meters and more.
A research report in November estimated Apple Pay accounted for one percent of all digital payments, surpassing competing solutions from industry stalwarts like PayPal that have yet to get off the ground.
Apple's entry into mobile payments is a shot in the arm for the industry and has stoked accelerated competition from rival systems, including the Walmart and BestBuy-backed MCX. Earlier this month, a report claimed Google was looking to expand its Google Wallet service through the purchase of Softcard, a joint venture in contactless payments backed by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.
During Apple's quarterly conference call for the first quarter of 2015, company CEO Tim Cook announced huge uptake for Apple Pay since its activation in October, saying he expects even more growth as the year progresses.
"We are more confident than ever that 2015 will be the year of Apple Pay," Cook said.
The statistics up to this point are impressive. Initially, 500 banks and financial institutions pledged support for the service, but that number has swelled to around 750, with even more requesting to partner up. Discussing current retail partners, Cook said Apple Pay now represents 80 percent of contactless transactions at Panera Bread, while upscale grocer Whole Foods saw a 400 percent increase in contactless payments since the service launched.
Cook expressed surprise at seeing the rapid rate of Apple Pay adoption at retailers willing to update their point-of-sale terminals during the busy holiday season, a time when companies usually put such efforts on hold.
It was reported earlier today Apple Pay launched at 200,000 self-service stations across the U.S., including vending machines, commercial laundry machines, parking meters and more.
A research report in November estimated Apple Pay accounted for one percent of all digital payments, surpassing competing solutions from industry stalwarts like PayPal that have yet to get off the ground.
Apple's entry into mobile payments is a shot in the arm for the industry and has stoked accelerated competition from rival systems, including the Walmart and BestBuy-backed MCX. Earlier this month, a report claimed Google was looking to expand its Google Wallet service through the purchase of Softcard, a joint venture in contactless payments backed by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.
Comments
Hurry up Apple Pay!
Imagine if someone showed you that headline in 2012?
Unbelievable.
Cook says he's surprised at the growth rate.
This is the perfect time to have an NFC POS focused iPad.
I see iPad sales are down(thanks iPhone 6+) and I think having a stronger focus on business will open up a whole market opportunity for them. I mean a HUGE untapped market, like taking over POS terminals and payment kiosks, etc.
Even taking business further by adding features to replace plane monitors, inventory PDAs, hospital monitors etc.
Any news on when Discover Card will join ApplePay?
Are you certain it's because Apple is dragging their proverbial feet?
Apple Pay needs a web API to really really dominate payments IMHO.
Apple should come out with an API where supporting web checkout carts can query your phone/pad/keyboard/mouse for fingerprint payment.
I really don't want to install an app from any 1 vendor just because I want to buy 1 or 2 things from them every couple of months.
Take this scenario for instance...
I go to billybobslures.com on my Mac/iPhone/iPad and buy some night crawlers for my fishing trip next week. I go to checkout and click Apple Pay. The iphone/ipad/mightymouse3 asks for a fingerprint. Bam! card charged and shipping info filled out.. done.
Right now I need to install billybobslures' app to use ApplePay. That's just more trouble then it's worth.
Amazon and maybe Fandango are the only web vendors I might consider downloading an app for ApplePay. I mean.. download the Dominos app for Apple Pay pizzas? What if I feel like Pizza Hut today? Another app??!?!
Looks like Google Wallet was such a huge hit over there also,.... Not!
Last year it was about launching Apple Pay and working out any kinks there may have been and get it all working good. This year should be all about expanding to other countries. Remember there only 2 phones in the world that support Apple Pay. It's still adv tiny fraction of phones and even a small percentage of iPhone's. The Apple Watch us coming up soon which will allow people to use Apple Pay with a older iPhone. Then comes the next gen iPhone's. Google's been at it for over 4 years and didn't go anywhere with it. It's only been a few months for Apple and much more work. Apple had to work with every bank directly, Google doesn't!
It takes time's it took many years before there were credit card terminals everywhere. Apple Pay seems to be taking off, so you'll get it at some point, and sooner is better then later. Like the US, NFC terminals were disappearing. Few were using them. Now they're starting to make a comeback.
Are you certain it's because Apple is dragging their proverbial feet?
No. I wasn't implying that. I just know that it's not here and I have the hardware which could take advantage of it.
Looks like Google Wallet was such a huge hit over there also,.... Not!
Last year it was about launching Apple Pay and working out any kinks there may have been and get it all working good. This year should be all about expanding to other countries. Remember there only 2 phones in the world that support Apple Pay. It's still adv tiny fraction of phones and even a small percentage of iPhone's. The Apple Watch us coming up soon which will allow people to use Apple Pay with a older iPhone. Then comes the next gen iPhone's. Google's been at it for over 4 years and didn't go anywhere with it. It's only been a few months for Apple and much more work. Apple had to work with every bank directly, Google doesn't!
It takes time's it took many years before there were credit card terminals everywhere. Apple Pay seems to be taking off, so you'll get it at some point, and sooner is better then later. Like the US, NFC terminals were disappearing. Few were using them. Now they're starting to make a comeback.
NFC is almost standard here. I have no idea why it might have been dying off in the states. I think Google had the right idea, but like everything else, Apple have spent a little bit more time getting the UX right (I guess, I haven't seen it in the flesh yet) and all of a sudden it's taking off.
Right now PayPal is better setup for web payments through their portal. I'm hoping we see something similar appear for iOS or Mac OS X next year.
I am expecting a lot more countries to be coming online this year for ?Pay. It's a lot of work to get these financial institutions on board, but after that demo I bet Apple was being contacted from banks around the world. My reasoning is the potential fraud savings are too high to ignore. My guess is that they'll be rolling it out for iOS 9. Not that it needs to be tied to iOS 9, but that's how Apple often likes to do things.
Google didn't have the right idea. They shut out all the multinationals and banks to partner with a single company that would use your checking account and routing numbers to pull money from your account. This was all to harvest more personal data from you. That actually encourages more fraud as there is less and more difficult protection for the consumer compared to CCs. Touch ID is great, but ?Pay would have been a huge benefit even if you had to input your PIN when you made a purchase.
No. I wasn't implying that. I just know that it's not here and I have the hardware which could take advantage of it.
NFC is almost standard here. I have no idea why it might have been dying off in the states. I think Google had the right idea, but like everything else, Apple have spent a little bit more time getting the UX right (I guess, I haven't seen it in the flesh yet) and all of a sudden it's taking off.
This isn't about having an NFC terminal - that's just the method of transmitting wirelessly to the terminal - there are many NFC terminals in the US that do not support ApplePay. There's a reason this is rolling out over time to new banks - the back end systems need to be updated to support the new transaction and authorization protocols.
This system update would've happened eventually in the US... It's taking off now because there's a powerful and influential brand to put behind it, so the banks and credit card companies are putting their dollars behind it to promote it.
Google Wallet tried to work around the institutions by working within the current system. ApplePay, on the other hand, works with the institutions to help advance the state of the system by adopting new protocols.
Being in Canada for a week skiing, I have tried to use Apple Pay at a couple of places.
So far with zero success ( and these are for cards I've used with AP in U.S.)
Even at a checkout that had PayPass/paywave. And that accepted a physical card waved at it.
Maybe Canadian Tire wants to slow down their checkout process ??
That's great news for North America. But here in Australia that number is closer to 0/3rds. I don't think I've seen a non-NFS POS terminal in months.
Hurry up Apple Pay!
As I see it, Apple took a while to shake out the bugs. Doing that in the U.S. makes a lot of sense (known territory, close contact, same time zone, etc). Now is the time that international rollouts are starting.
I was not surprised to see UK high on the list. But the brain-dead bankers there may have done you a favour by pushing back on the basis that "Apple gets too much customer information". Maybe zombies are running banking in UK now ?? If this insanity remains in place then I expect Australia to move further ahead in line.
I think Tim is mistaken. It will be the year of the goat.
You are right. It will be the year of the goat.
The open question is which will be the goat: Tim or quinney
I wonder how many of those POS devices run Windows
ApplePay? Meh.
It won't be the driving factor when i upgrade from a 5S to a 6S.
Most, but that is irrelevant to PoS terminals accepting NFC-based payments.
I wonder how many of those POS devices run Windows
Try not to think. But the answer is "most of them".
Ever wonder why Home Depot was hacked months after Target ? Management incompetence is only partly to blame.
Did you ever wonder what OS was running the devices targeted by Stuxnet?
*slaps forehead*
Most, but that is irrelevant to PoS terminals accepting NFC-based payments.
I wasn't trying to make a point. I was being genuinely curious. Thank you for answering my question
I wonder how many of those POS devices run Windows
Every device that runs Windows is a POS!
I jest of course.
or you?