Apple Pay Used on 16% of Active iPhones Worldwide, Widespread Adoption Still Expected in 3-5 Years

[Digger148]

I love it for vending machines and parking meters, plus, I've used Apple Pay Cash for several Craigslist and OfferUp transactions. I don't patronize Walmart (*Purgatorymart*), CVS, nor, Target so there's no mourning those 3 from my end.

My only beef is that most places that accept it use it only as a replacement for swiping or chipping the physical card. Meaning: I still need to physically indicate credit or debit, type in pin number, and, tap accept, all the while, waiting for the (hopefully alert) person manning the sales register to fondle keys and touch displays on his/her side. Not really a big deal, but, no improvement over pulling out the credit/debit card.

Walgreens' implementation is spot on and extremely fast, lacking only a digital receipt option. Well done them!

 

[Kabeyun]

Four fifths of a BILLION active iPhones in the world. That’s just an incredible number.

 

[BigMcGuire]

My main credit card just announced that it supports Apple Pay. I'll be using it a lot more now!

 

[Sasparilla]

It's gotten to the point for my area that for most of my main places I use it - love the fact its a one time number for each use. Wallgreens, Jewel, Meijer, Ace Hardware and alot of the new smaller silver credit card machines at merchants have wireless built in (thinking of individual businesses I've been surprised with over the last year, but also Jimmy John's and Subway).

Apple needs to link up with Google (for Google Pay) and tie iMessage pay (whatever its called) to Google's pay - so they get access to every phone out there...they'd take a huge piece of the person to person market (Venmo etc.).

 

[itsmilo]

Since Apple Pay isn’t available i have come to terms with using tap to pay on my visa card. I would say its just as fast.

When i went to the US i was shocked that literally not a single place i went to supported tap to pay and even with chip a lot of people where overwhelmed like they asked me to sign a receipt when it clearly said PIN VERIFIED on the piece of paper.

 

[CLS1]

Push-button twice...hold up to terminal-face. **Ding!** Yeah, that's a lot of steps.

Versus pulling out my wallet, sliding my card...**DING**? I still do not see the allure with paying for something via electronic device. Although I do find being able to send money via imessage very convenient.

 

[scrapesleon]

Still no Apple Pay in Jamaica

 

[BigMcGuire]

Versus pulling out my wallet, sliding my card...**DING**? I still do not see the allure with paying for something via electronic device. Although I do find being able to send money via imessage very convenient.

It's extremely convenient. I hold my phone near the pay station, they total up my bill, ding my phone pops up asking for my touch ID then 2 seconds later it says paid and I get a notice on my phone of the amount charged and I walk out.

This is versus taking out my CC, swiping, waiting for it to register the pin, hitting the green button, and signing a piece of paper.

 

[CLS1]

It's extremely convenient. I hold my phone near the pay station, they total up my bill, ding my phone pops up asking for my touch ID then 2 seconds later it says paid and I get a notice on my phone of the amount charged and I walk out.

This is versus taking out my CC, swiping, waiting for it to register the pin, hitting the green button, and signing a piece of paper.

I guess when your life needs those few extra seconds to spare. I suppose it is more convenient. Then again I don't find myself in that much of a hurry. To each his own.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I guess when your life needs those few extra seconds to spare. I suppose it is more convenient. Then again I don't find myself in that much of a hurry. To each his own.

Oh yeah it's definitely not a requirement. I find it easier and convenient - but if I lost it tomorrow I wouldn't care at all. I do find the chip readers to be a LOT slower than the old way of sliding the stripe of the CC. But yeah, it's noticeably faster with Apple Pay. I haven't used it much because my primary CC up until very recently did not let me add it to Apple Pay.

 

[Rigby]

I guess when your life needs those few extra seconds to spare. I suppose it is more convenient. Then again I don't find myself in that much of a hurry. To each his own.

It's not just a little more convenient, but more importantly more secure since it uses one-time security codes. It also provides a bit more privacy since it doesn't disclose your name to merchants like credit cards do.

 

[friednoodles]

Only good if you have one card. I have 6. Also on iPhone X because of Face ID, it’s a lot easier to double click the button first and preempt the card. Otherwise it’s hold, bring up, hold again.

I was mostly making the point that there are essentially no "steps" involved as some were suggesting, as you don't have to even interact with any buttons or the screen to bring up Apple Pay if you don't want to

(and for the people here who may not be aware - you can still select which card to use before the payment happens even when activating it by simply bringing it in range of the terminal, as using this method it will wait until you confirm the payment via Touch ID or Face ID; as mentioned by dontwalkhand, it's easier to do that step first on an iPhone X though)

And as an aside, in Japan with a Suica card you don't even need to confirm transactions at all when using it for transit - you can flag your Suica card in Wallet as Express Transit Card and that allows the phone or watch to perform transactions just by passing it over the ticket gate reader, without having to confirm with Touch ID or Face ID, etc. No "priming" required for even less hassle and faster movement.

 

[bushman4]

the majority of the stores do NOT take Apple Pay. Remember people don’t only shop in chain stores they shop in local stores like a neighborhood bakery which takes credit cards but not NFC
And now that I give it some thought even big stores like Home Depot and Target don’t accept Apple Pay
Bottom Line: Unfortunately Apple Pay is a limited option and the future doesn’t look any brighter

 

[djlythium]

Most folks don’t know about it at all, it’s up to us superusers to preach it.

Yea, I agree. I've shown people how to set it up because they didn't know it existed (which blows my mind, but that's a different conversation), and I've even shown retailers that they already have it set up on their terminal by trying AP. To their surprise, it works, and now they have another selling point for their business.

 

[Will.O.Bie]

If Apple wanted more merchants integrated into Apple Pay or want more people to use it, then maybe they should spend time to educate, negotiate, help implement it with small and big businesses, instead of waiting for them to transition or implement it. They have just about unlimited resources if they chose to dedicate a lot of time and effort into this instead of that useless automated vehicle project and "planet of the apps", "stupid karaoke while driving" shows that not too many people really care about.

I understand that you can't depend on Apple Pay 100% and would wanna carry one or two cards with you just in case, but I have forgotten how cash and credit cards look like ever since I've used it exclusively in stores that I visit the most that have Apple Pay.

 

[SRLMJ23]

Versus pulling out my wallet, sliding my card...**DING**? I still do not see the allure with paying for something via electronic device. Although I do find being able to send money via imessage very convenient.

Apple Pay is also more secure than actually swiping/inserting your physical card. Apple Pay assigns a unique number in place of your cards actual number so that if there was a security breach/hack, the hackers would not get your real card number and you would be protected and not even have to worry about it. Only thing I cannot remember is if it assigns a unique number just for the card OR for each transaction...if I recall correctly it is the former.

Either way, I will take the convenience of how quick and easy Apple Pay is to use (especially with the AW) AND the added security benefit.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203027

 

[Altis]

It's extremely convenient. I hold my phone near the pay station, they total up my bill, ding my phone pops up asking for my touch ID then 2 seconds later it says paid and I get a notice on my phone of the amount charged and I walk out.

This is versus taking out my CC, swiping, waiting for it to register the pin, hitting the green button, and signing a piece of paper.

We have tap-to-pay on our cards here in Canada.

So you can just tap your credit/debit card to the terminal and you're done, for purchases up to around $100.

So having to deal with a laggy iPhone with its input blocking and refusal to recognize my thumb with any amount of moisture on it isn't worth the hassle. Plus, it mustn't have run out of battery.

 

[BigMcGuire]

We have tap-to-pay on our cards here in Canada.

So you can just tap your credit/debit card to the terminal and you're done, for purchases up to around $100.

So having to deal with a laggy iPhone with its input blocking and refusal to recognize my thumb with any amount of moisture on it isn't worth the hassle. Plus, it mustn't have run out of battery.

Wow that sounds nice. We here in the states deal with slower than hell chip cards that we have to insert into a reader, won't read the card till the cashier scans everything and finalizes, then it spends 15+ seconds trying to work with the card and actually processing the transaction, then we have to hit a green button approving the transaction, wait for the receipt to print, then sign the receipt.

LA county and most places SAY you don't have to sign if under $50 but a LOT of stores still require it.

Very nice.

 

[Rigby]

Only thing I cannot remember is if it assigns a unique number just for the card OR for each transaction...if I recall correctly it is the former.

It does both. It creates a virtual credit card number which stays the same as long as the card is provisioned in Wallet, and additionally uses security codes that are unique per transaction.

 

[Altis]

Wow that sounds nice. We here in the states deal with slower than hell chip cards that we have to insert into a reader, won't read the card till the cashier scans everything and finalizes, then it spends 15+ seconds trying to work with the card and actually processing the transaction, then we have to hit a green button approving the transaction, wait for the receipt to print, then sign the receipt.

LA county and most places SAY you don't have to sign if under $50 but a LOT of stores still require it.

Very nice.

It sure is nice! It used to be around $25 taps, now it's at least $100. They keep upping it but I suspect it's about as high as people want it to go.

I do agree the chip is a bit of a pain. We've had it for ages here. The reason they came out with it was to pass on the burden of responsibility to the card owner to reduce their fraud payouts. The chips+PIN are still often captured by fraudsters but the CC company will try to hold the owner responsible, rather than the swipe where they typically owned the burden.

 

[ipedro]

I’ve been using ApplePay since day one in Canada and from that very first day, ApplePay was already pretty widely accepted because tap payments had been introduced 2 years prior.

I’m often surprised to find that my friends don’t have theirs set up. The #1 reason is that they don’t trust their iPhone with that kind of access even though they have banking apps on their phone. Apple has to work on breaking that barrier.

 

[lewchenko]

Really? The only places I find in the uk are some petrol stations and supermarkets but that’s it. Barely any restaurants take it. Neither high end or middle tier. Smaller shops don’t. Parking doesn’t. In the uk it is very hit and miss which is why I am forced to always bring out my wallet with me. And of course you can’t give the many homeless people in london any money with Apple Pay. So you have to bring coins too.

Some valid points but I find in the UK I’m using it more and more.

The major supermarkets like Tesco, M&S, Waitrose take it. Just about all the coffee shops I’ve been in take it. WHSmiths and many over high street stores take it. Even the van where I get my falafel wrap for lunch takes it. I guess it depends on where you live.

Agree with you on the parking and restaurants though.

I use it mainly because I think it’s more secure than using my CC which could easily be cloned / scanned. Not so with Apple Pay.

It helps to have the Apple watch too. Seamless then.

Coins for homeless people. Umm ok. No, I don’t expect they would take Apple Pay lol. But then as many probably have iPhones (seen it with my own eyes on many occasions), you could probably send them a donation via Apple Pay should you feel so inclined !

 

[Apple_Robert]

I am surprised by the low number. I expected to see much higher usage.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Push-button twice...hold up to terminal-face. **Ding!** Yeah, that's a lot of steps.

Actually the push button twice isn't even necessary. I only found out recently, but as long as the terminal is ready to accept your payment you can simply hold the phone close to it and TouchID.

 

[ErikGrim]

Once you have ApplePay on your watch, even using it on your phone seems barbaric.
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I use it all the time with my watch. Am still surprised at how often I get the "Did you just pay with your watch? That's so cool!" reaction. You'd think after almost four years, people would be starting to figure this out. But this reaction continues and comes from all types - young and old.

Yup. Almost every single day.