Apple Pay marks the company’s efforts to revolutionize the way that consumers pay for their goods and services. Pay will utilize a specific process which allows for the fast transaction of goods and services using an Apple-based digital wallet. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, called today’s payment process “antiquated,” and stated that he intended to usher in a new era of payment through the power of the Apple ecosystem and its associated technologies.
The Pay network will utilize Near Field Communication (NFC), in order to trigger payments. The vendor will need to purchase and install special hardware in order to facilitate these transactions, and the buyer will scan their fingerprint upon payment time in order to release the funds from their iPhone to the vendor. Currently, there are about 222,000 stores across the United States which have signed onto the Pay service, although it still has many obstacles towards its widespread adoption.
Apple Pay is facing a great deal of competition from other vendors who would lie to use their own digital wallets to facilitate transactions. Both Walmart and Best Buy have rejected Pay in favor of plans to issue their own digital wallets in the future to facilitate transactions. We could see a reality where, rather than relying on a centralized payment scheme in the form of Apple Pay, we would witness large vendors issuing their own “currency” in their stores and thus earning profits by being able to issue this currency themselves. This is all made possible because of the creation of digital currency systems.
However, there are is still hope for Pay. Both Visa and Mastercard have signed onto the scheme, and Apple claims to possess more than 800 million pieces of credit card information from its iTunes store, already giving it a head start in the race to be crowned digital currency King. Obviously, how this will play out is yet to be seen, but it is possible that Apple could boost its sales from new adopters of its hardware seeking to take advantage of deals and benefits offered by the Apple Pay system.
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