Apple has a reason to celebrate as the company's fourth quarter earnings is on a record-high thanks to its mobile payments wallet, Apple Pay. This success was marked by an outstanding 500 percent increase in purchases, surpassing that of even all of Apple's fiscal 2015.
In an article published in Fortune, a speculation as to why this gargantuan rise occurred is due to its international expansion in the previous months. Singapore, Hong Kong, France, China, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States are some countries where the mobile tap-to-pay service has been made available.
This may just be the tip of the iceberg, as the growth has not reached its maximum yet. As per Engadget, Japan and Russia have also experienced the new pay system in October, and will more likely expand further in existing regions.
The appeal of the tap-to-pay service can first be seen in its security feature. Using this service prevents a consumer from divulging credit card information or bringing out cash, and both of which can be particularly risky. Another obvious highlight is the comfort and simplicity since an Apple phone is all that's needed for making purchases.
If that's not enough, customers are given the liberty to use the payment service on the Internet through the Safari web browser. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, explained that a lot of websites are already using Apple Pay for the web. To add to that, several services purchased within mobile apps are now covered by this payment system.
It is uncertain though if Apple is leading in terms of the tap-to-pay service. Apple has not provided information on baseline numbers needed to determine if the increase was significant. Although competitors such as Samsung were quick to publicize that they had 100 million transactions in August, this too has yet to be proven.
Contactless payment is soon going to be a bloody arena for companies who cater to this need. Needless to say, a tough competition will certainly be seen among Apple and its counterparts Samsung Pay and Android Pay.
