AppleInsider Staff
Apple on Thursday updated its digital storefront to include PayPal as a valid method of making purchases, expanding customer options beyond credit and debit cards for the first time.
As seen in the screenshot above, U.S. and UK Online Apple Stores have activated PayPal as an accepted form of payment for hardware purchases. First spotted by Re/Code, the change grants PayPal access to America's second-largest online retailer, and sees Apple promoting the PayPal Credit payments method that lets customers pay off a purchase over 18 months with no interest.
PayPal transactions have been available in the iTunes Music Store, App Store and iBookstore, as well as various third-party in-app solutions, but Apple has never allowed the payments service access to its lucrative hardware storefront until today.
It appears PayPal functionality is currently limited to Apple.com, as the Apple Store iOS app is not yet showing availability.
The two companies share a complicated relationship, especially after Apple announced direct PayPal competitor Apple Pay in September. Shortly after Apple Pay was unveiled, PayPal took advantage of a high-profile celebrity photo leak controversy involving iCloud as ammunition against Apple's mobile payments solution.
With Apple Pay, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners are able to conduct secure touchless transactions at a number of stores across the country. Perhaps more pressing an issue for PayPal is Apple Pay's online and in-app functionality, which some analysts see as a significant opportunity for Apple to disrupt PayPal's dominance in the sector.
Malcolm Owen
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15 Comments
Do Bitcoin next!
iOS Priceline is updated with support for Apple Pay. That is huge.
re/code and apple insider has no clue what they are talking about, and i would appreciate it if they would explain this so called story.
when you go to a paypal merchant and want to use paypal there is an option for bill me later.
when you had to go to apple to buy something with bill me later, you had to select the financing tab, and that pay pal or bill me alter did not show up on the main payment tab, where visa and master card show up
i was able to purchase a mac mini using Bill me later ( a PAYPAL company ) on october 28th 2014. i qualified for no interest and no payments for 6 months. i made this purchase on www.apple.com
the deal with paypal ( or bill me later ) at the time was that you couldn't use paypal for in store pickup of apple hardware , and all apple hardware had to be shipped to you.
if this is "new" and i am putting quotes around new , then maybe this just means now we can use paypal / bill me later for in store pickups. but the article does not mention it.
this article is not entirely true and should be pulled
as far as i am concerned, paypal, bill me later, and paypal credit are all the same thing
Where is the applepay option?
that was a screen shot from a web browser, and not an app. if you use the app then you can use applepay