Apple on Tuesday added 39 more banks and credit unions to the roster of institutions offering support for Apple Pay, bringing the total to more than 180 since the service's launch in October 2014.
Apple's iPhone-based Apple Pay service will soon see its first major competition in the mobile payments space as MCX consortium-backed solution CurrentC prepares to go public.
Although Apple CEO Tim Cook claimed that Apple Pay had "gotten off to the most amazing start," about two-thirds of its users are encountering problems at retail, according to a survey published this week by Phoenix Marketing International.
China has reportedly agreed to delay a rollout of regulations that would restrict state-operated banks from purchasing or employing foreign equipment and technology.
Vendors who accept Apple Pay can advertise their support with new decal stickers supplied by Apple itself, which began arriving in the mail for merchants on Thursday.
Apple recently activated a program allowing merchants to order Apple Pay decal kits to dress up shop windows and registers, which raises customer awareness of where Apple's payment service is accepted.
According to market research firm InfoScout, some six percent of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners have used Apple Pay to make a touchless transaction, while 85 percent have yet to try the service.
The PGA Tour's support of Apple Pay will expand with the upcoming Arnold Palmer Invitational event, where fans will be able to purchase both merchandise and concessions with their iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus.
Apple has made small but important changes to its official App Store Review Guidelines for iOS developers, addressing consent issues with the company's new ResearchKit platform, along with recurring payments under Apple Pay, and downloads of third-party music and video.
Swiss watchmaker Swatch has forged deals with banking firms to add NFC-based payments to its upcoming products, something that may be necessary to mitigate the threat of devices like the Apple Watch.
Following big MacBook and Apple Watch announcements at Monday's "Spring Forward" event, Apple updated its running list of merchants that support Apple Pay to include 14 new stores.
Another major retail chain, GameStop, has announced plans to support Apple Pay in the aftermath of yesterday's Apple Watch press event, with preparations underway to introduce the payment technology later this month.
Adding to Apple Pay's expanding footprint, Marriott and Etsy announced separately that they will offer physical and digital support for Apple's payments service in the coming weeks.
As Apple seeks to expand the network of businesses that accept Apple Pay, recent updates to the company's marketing collateral for the mobile payment system have begun to focus on recruiting independent merchants, answering a number of frequently-asked questions and offering a telephone support hotline.
When Apple rolls out a rare new product—rather than canceling it internally—you'd have to be naive to think it was rushed to market without much consideration and therefore probably doomed to failure. But you'd be equally naive to think that the incumbents positioned in the path of Apple's next potential juggernaut wouldn't desperately seek to defend their turf, bending the truth to the breaking point if necessary.
Banks are instituting more stringent credit and debit card authorization policies for Apple Pay users after criminals took advantage of previously lax security protocols to provision new accounts using stolen card data.
According to a report on Thursday, fraudsters are using credit card information gleaned from recent high-profile retail chain data to create Apple Pay accounts, while Apple Stores themselves account for 80 percent of unauthorized transactions.
Apple continues to forge forward in expanding card support for its fledgling Apple Pay service and on Tuesday added 18 new credit unions and banks to the list of participating issuers.
Apple Pay has proven to be a venue of convenience for criminals focusing on identity fraud, a new report suggests, with many fraudsters taking advantage of lax customer verification controls put in place by Apple's partner banks to make brick-and-mortar purchases using stolen credit cards via the growing mobile payment service.
Search giant Google on Monday revealed plans to build a new mobile payments API into its Android mobile operating system, allowing developers to integrate the service — dubbed Android Pay — into their applications.
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Roger Fingas
AppleInsider Staff
Neil Hughes
Mikey Campbell
Sam Oliver
Daniel Eran Dilger
