I'm actually pretty excited about this.
Sadly, we in the US have been left far behind by the chip and PIN model adopted in over 80 countries and in use for more than a decade in many.
When I travel to the UK, people there look at my magnetic strip cards from America like I just stepped out of a 1980s time machine, and shake their heads.
Even the cards in the US that are starting to get chips are just a poor copy of what the rest of the world is using. Our chip cards are "chip and signature" which is just a cop out.
With this push though, Apple stands to drive the next generation of more advanced payment options, since there are certain banking regulations forcing changes in 2015.
If they can grab some big retailers (and they already have quite a few) this could be huge. Maybe we can finally have a comprehensive payment system that is far more secure that the terrible and obsolete system we have now.