Apple has announced its new mobile payments system: Apple Pay. As expected, it will allow you to use your iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, or Apple Watch as a digital wallet, paying at one of the 220,000 contactless payment locations across the US. Furthermore, though, Apple Pay also simplifies online payments, allowing you to buy things with just a single tap of the Touch ID sensor (your fingerprint). Apple Pay will also work with the Apple Watch.
While digital wallets and mobile payments aren’t a new idea, Apple Pay sounds like it will be a very slick, fast, and private solution. Out of the box, it will work with your credit card details stored in iTunes, but you can add more credit cards. (Apple seems to have partnered with most US banks, and the underlying providers: Visa, MasterCard, and AmericanExpress.) All told, Apple says it can now account for 83% of credit card transactions — so not total coverage, but pretty good.
Using Apple Pay is as simple as you’d think. Load up a credit card in the Passbook app, approach a contactless payment point, put your finger to the Touch ID fingerprint scanner — and boom, you’ve paid. To make Apple Pay very secure, every transaction actually generates a one-time “payment number.” Rather than using your actual credit card number and security digits (CVV), Apple Pay creates a card number and security digits that only work one time. That way, if your iPhone or Apple Watch gets stolen, you don’t have to cancel your credit cards. Apple says your name or other identifiable data is never revealed to the store clerk, either, which is nice.
Along with contactless payment, Apple Pay can also be used to simplify online payments. Details are a little vague, but it looks like third-party app developers will be able to integrate Apple Pay, so that you can pay with your stored credit card details by tapping “Pay with Apple Pay” and scanning your fingerprint on the Touch ID sensor.
Apple has announced lots of big partners for Apple Pay. Disney, Staples, Subway, McDonalds, Walgreens, Macy’s, and many more, all of which are dedicated to rolling out support for Apple Pay in some form or another. By Christmas, you’ll be able to walk around one of Disney’s theme parks and pay for everything with Apple Pay (or, indeed, another contactless credit card if you have one).
Apple Pay will be available in October for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and only in the US to start with. It will also be available for the Apple Watch when it’s released in 2015. Will Apple Pay kill off cash or the real-world leather wallet?
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