Apple Launch Their Payment Service

Apple Pay Is Here

Apple have launched their long-awaited Apple Pay service, and will progressively add wallets to their iPhones. The iPhone is the gadget of a generation, and has already pushed aside many big-hitting devices such as MP3 players and Satellite Navigation Systems, and now the new payment service will enable consumers to purchase items at more than 220,000 stores.

This comes off the back of controversial news that Apple, along with Google, have offered to pay the cost of freezing their female employees' eggs.

Source: techcrunch.com

Many companies have jumped on board with Apple in supporting their scheme. McDonald’s, Whole Foods and Walgreen are all supporting the scheme, but there are many that are yet to commit. Among these include America’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, and this may be because there are currently only a minority of machines even capable of reading the near-field communication radio signal that makes Apple Pay work. In addition to this, it is only Apple’s newest phones that have the capability to run the technology.

The current limitations don’t seem to have impacted Apple’s ambition though, as the tech giants have signed up the six biggest card issuers, who account for 83% of credit-transactions in the United States. It also has the three big-hitting credit-card networks on board: Visa Inc., MasterCard and American Express Co.

The Apple Pay system itself is the most ambitious effort to expand the power of the smartphone, and position it as the safest way to make payments and keep up-to-date with finances. Due to how new the service is, corporate credit cards and prepaid cards are not accepted yet. Retailer’s credit cards are also on this list, so shoppers will not be able to gain their reward points by using Apple Pay, and this may be a huge problem for Apple as these cards sometimes incentivise customers to take up store offers and discounts.

Macy’s spokesman Jim Sluzewski declared that he expects the Macy’s specific card to be added in time. He said that half of Macy’s sales come from its proprietary card,which is also linked to its loyalty programme, and in this case, it would be highly beneficial for Apple to take advantage of this.

Source: copa.ca

Richard Crone, who is the founder of payments advisory firm Crone Consulting said that store-branded cards are “the big gaping hole in Apple Pay.” The technology superpower expects to resolve this gap over time, and Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president in charge of Internet software and services, said: “We’re trying to do something that I think is a game changer and it requires a lot of people to play together.” He then added: “There’s a lot to do here and we have a lot of work to do, but it should be huge.”

There is no doubt that Apple Pay will be a success, after all it’s Apple, but can you trust it? This is a company that was the victim of the most high-profile hacking scandal of all time in terms of the media, and surely that will have an impact on how people receive a service that requires their financial details.

Apple already own your eyes, and now they own your wallets, and before long they will own your wrists, as the new Apple Watch is launching in 2015.

Alex Smith

Alex is an English Literature and Sociology undergraduate whose love for written word has led him to write about some obscure topics in his time. Currently a content writer at Social Media Frontiers, be sure to follow him @AlexSatSMF.

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