Apple Pay

In case you missed Apple’s fight with the FBI this week, the launch of Apple in China, or any of the other big Apple stories we’ve covered, below we’ve rounded up this week’s top stories and recommended reading to get you up to date over the weekend. Enjoy. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Update: Apple has since informed us that the comment by a local representative was not an official statement and has been mistranslated from the Chinese by Caixan. The correct information is that the ability to add cards was being made available on a rolling basis throughout the day. 

With many Chinese iPhone owners reporting they they are unable to register for Apple Pay, an Apple spokesman representative has said the issues are due to too many people trying to sign-up a planned gradual rollout throughout the day. Mashable reports that 38 million bank cards had been linked to Apple Pay by 5pm on launch day, 10M of them registered within the first hour.

Chinese site Caixin cited one example.

“It kept telling me the phone ‘cannot connect to Apple Pay’ or the verification for the card is not available when I was linking a bankcard,” said Duan Ge, a 31-year-old employee of a film production company. Duan said he managed to link his debit card after about 30 minutes of trying, but later when he tried to register another credit card, he “could not even open the app.”

Some had feared that Apple might face an uphill battle in persuading Chinese nationals to use the service, for two reasons …

Expand
Expanding
Close

After a number of reports in recent months regarding Apple’s preparations to launch its Apple Pay payments service in China, the company today announced the service is now available to customers in the country.

The announcement comes via Apple’s news site for developers and notes that apps and goods in the country can now accept the Apple Pay payments service using supported credit and debit cards. 

Expand
Expanding
Close

While China is expected to get Apple Pay anytime now, dozens of additional banks and credit unions across the United States have joined in supporting Apple’s mobile payment service. More than 40 new banks have joined the list of Apple Pay partners, which already totals to over 1,000 across the US and 15 across the UK. These are the latest additions:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has confirmed earlier reports that Apple Pay would launch in China this week, social media posts stating that its service will go live on Thursday 18 February. A further 18 lenders are signed up to the service, Reuters reporting that two of them – China Guangfa Bank Co and China Construction Bank Corp – will launch on the same day as ICBC.

Apple has been working on bringing its mobile payment service to China for some time, creating a Shanghai-based company to manage the rollout back in September of last year, with this month long rumored to be the target launch date. China will be the fifth country to go live, after the USA, UK, Canada and Australia.

As Reuters notes, however, Apple may face something of an uphill battle in signing up users in China …

Expand
Expanding
Close

A new report French website iGen indicates that France could be seeing an Apple Pay announcement in as early as the first half of this year. While Apple announced the UnionPay partnership for China two months ago, there has yet to be any signs that other additional countries outside the US and UK (aside from Australia and Canada’s American Express arrangement) would be seeing Apple Pay any time soon. Other reports believe that China could be seeing Apple Pay, which is promised to go live in early 2016, activated as soon as this Thursday at 5 AM (Beijing time).

Expand
Expanding
Close

Welcome to the latest edition of Jeremy’s 5, my latest roundup of 5 interesting little things that aren’t big enough for full articles, but are still worth sharing with you.

This week, I’m sharing some thoughts on Just Mobile’s latest iPhone and Apple Watch docks, iOS’s mysterious Error 53, experiences integrating Apple products into a small business, and Apple Pay…

Expand
Expanding
Close

With Apple Pay continuing its ongoing rollout across U.S. banks and credit unions, Apple’s mobile payment service has added over 30 new partners. Here is the full list of new Apple Pay banks:

Expand
Expanding
Close

We learned this week that Apple Pay has reached a new milestone with 2 million locations accepting the iPhone and Apple Watch-based mobile wallet. This an impressive climb for the service that launched with just over 220,000 locations on board in fall 2014, but what does it look like in everyday use and what’s next for Apple Pay?

Expand
Expanding
Close

Bloomberg reports today that Apple’s mobile payments solution Apple Pay is now supported at 2 million locations around the world. In addition to revealing that 2 million locations now support the service, the report also says that Chick-Fil-A, Crate & Barrel, and Au Bon Pain will also start rolling out support for the service soon.

Expand
Expanding
Close

[Update: Chase confirmed to the USA Today this week that it is planning NFC-based ATM withdrawals later this year.]

According to a report out of TechCrunch, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are both working to integrate Apple Pay support into their ATMs. The report, citing “a source familiar with the terms on the projects,” says that the companies have both placed employees on multi-month long assignments to integrate the Apple Pay options into ATMs around the country.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Venmo today introduced a new in-app payment option called ‘Pay with Venmo’ for both users and businesses alike. The feature allows vendors to directly integrate Venmo’s payment platform into their checkout process. And user’s can now simply select the Venmo option when checking out in supported apps, and no longer need to type in any credit card information.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has been steadily adding more banks to its list of those officially supported for Apple Pay, and today it adds yet another 50+ for users of the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch-based payment service. The new additions include a mix of banks and credit unions across the US, but don’t bring any newly supported institutions to users internationally. Head below for the full list of new banks and credit unions. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Late last year Square released its updated Square Reader for accepting contactless and chip payment methods on iPhones and iPads, which means small businesses and pop up shops can take Apple Pay payments from iPhones and Apple Watches without expensive terminal systems. The new Square Reader goes for $49 with transaction fees set at 2.75% so you keep $97.25 out of every $100 sent through Square. Square’s app lets you create mobilized businesses on iPhones and iPads, and we’ve tested the new Apple Pay-ready reader to see just how easy it all is.

Expand
Expanding
Close

While the number of U.S. retailers who accept Apple Pay has grown seven-fold between the launch of the service and the end of last year, usage appears to be lagging behind that curve. A survey by Phoenix Marketing found that even in the cases of retailers with the highest levels of Apple Pay usage, only a minority of customers use the payment method there more than once a month.

The survey also noted that 47% of Apple Pay users had experienced a failed transaction at least once, and that a handful of states account for half of all payments made using the service.

As someone who lives in the UK, where contactless payment first launched in 2008, none of this surprises me – and I don’t think it’s anything for Apple to worry about …

Expand
Expanding
Close

American retail chain Target is said to be developing its own mobile payment service that would compete with Apple Pay, according to the latest Reuters report this morning. Target’s mobile wallet service is described as being in the early stages of development with a possible launch possibly planned for sometime next year. Like other retailer-specific mobile wallets, Target’s mobile wallet would let customers pay for goods through a smartphone app.

Expand
Expanding
Close

The year is almost up but Apple Pay is still popping up in new places. BJ’s Wholesale Club already accepted Apple Pay in its stores for members, and now BJ’s has become the second retailer to allow their store cards to be added to the Wallet app and be used for Apple Pay. Kohl’s was officially the first retailer to add Apple Pay support to their store cards in October, while JCPenney is said to be testing support ahead of a 2016 rollout. Apple Pay is also going live with cards issued from over 60 more banks and credit unions around the country:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Since the launch of Apple Pay, retail giant Walmart has refused to accept the mobile payment option, saying instead that it only matters that consumers have a payment option that is widely accepted. Today, however, Walmart has announced its own mobile payment solution called Walmart Pay.

Expand
Expanding
Close