Sam Oliver
Apple Pay launch partner Bank of America on Thursday revealed that nearly 800,000 of its customers had signed up for Apple's nascent mobile payments initiative, bringing 1.1 million cards to the service in the last three months.
Those figures represent a small fraction of Bank of America's nearly 60 million customers, but they are encouraging numbers given the relative newness of the platform. The bank revealed the statistics in its quarterly earning statement, though no details regarding Apple Pay transaction volume or active versus registered users were provided.
In addition to being one of Apple's launch partners, Bank of America recently began promoting Apple Pay with a series of television advertisements. Those spots promoted Apple Pay as "the new, easy, secure, smart way to pay with a simple touch."
Apple Pay is already arguably the most successful mobile payment system ever launched for physical goods and services. Despite only being available for real-world purchases to consumers with Apple's latest iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay accounted for 1% of digital payment transactions in November.
Though still officially limited to consumers in the U.S., Apple is working to expand Apple Pay to Europe and Asia, evidenced by Apple Pay-related job listings in both London and Shanghai. The company is also believed to have struck an agreement with China UnionPay, the state-owned card issuer that dominates the market in mainland China.
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Charles Martin
William Gallagher
Stephen Silver
17 Comments
For those who chose not to enter credit card information on startup of iOS 8, for whatever reason, what is Apple doing to remind, educate or encourage these laggards? Seems to me the early adopters jumped on ApplePay immediately, but there is still a massive slow- and late-adopter curve that must be climbed.
ApplePay is another "home run" for Apple. I'm buying my daughter's 4 year old MBP (I had already bought it for her 4 years ago to finish Med. school with-Hmmmmm.) and iphone 6 just so I can take advantage of Yosemite and iOS8 specifically for the ApplePay and fingerprint security. Also, considering an iPad 3 Mini for the same reasons.
I am currently running SL on an orig. intel white iMac that just will not die. It can't be updated to the latest OS. I'm also running a 4s (with a crack in the screen). I very pleased that I'm able to run iOS8 on it and take advantage of most of the new features.
I certainly don't begrudge Apple for this. I like that most of their engineers are concentrating on the current and future hardware and software. Go Apple.
Best.
P.S. I not a fan of BOA or any of the big banks. The last thing I need is a mega-bank breathing down my neck. :)
Honestly, 1.1 million sounds low to me considering their number of BoA customers and the number of iPhone 6 series sold. [quote name="SpamSandwich" url="/t/184335/bank-of-america-customers-activate-1-1-million-cards-on-apple-pay#post_2661696"]For those who chose not to enter credit card information on startup of iOS 8, for whatever reason, what is Apple doing to remind, educate or encourage these laggards?[/quote] I don't think they have to do anything. Apple created a system that the banks are more than willing to advertise for on their own dime, and the user's get an additional convenience feature (that also helps protect them against the potential for fraud).
Apple Pay is already arguably the most successful mobile payment system ever launched...
Arguably?....
[quote name="DCGOO" url="/t/184335/bank-of-america-customers-activate-1-1-million-cards-on-apple-pay#post_2661721"]Arguably?....[/quote] I'd definitely argue it… and will. The term mobile is too loose a term, and has an unfortunate silent qualification built in. I would define plastic cards with magnetic stripes as being mobile. Nowadays we seem to want to append some sort of network connection to the definition, but that's simply because of how phones and computers naturally evolved. Since credit cards are, by definition, mobile, have been around for 65 years, taken most places, and are very pocketable I would say they are (and will for many, many years to come) be the most successful mobile payment system on the planet. That said, I would bet that ?Pay's growth rate and adoption by both consumers and financial institutions makes the fastest growing mobile payment system ever created.