Apple launched Apple Pay almost two
years ago, and people are still hesitant to use it. Credit card transactions
have always made people wary of the security. With Apple Pay, people have been
less likely to use it because their credit card information is within their
phones, and people can easily hack a person’s phone or the information is more
vulnerable saved in their phones rather than in their wallets.
Apple hoped that with Apple Pay, it
would speed up transactions and replace people carrying wallets. With the
launch of using a chip card, transactions have sped up a bit more, and slowed
down the significance of using Apple Pay. Apple Pay has also suffered through
retailers not using Apple Pay, and the places that do accept Apple Pay, do not
train their cashiers to learn how to be familiar with the system, so it makes
the transaction complicated for the customer and retailer. Furthermore, out of all the Apple users, only
13% of them are actually using the Apple Pay feature.
Apple Pay has been adapted faster
than other systems, but due to the lack of some retailers not using it, people
are hesitant to all together shift to Apple Pay because they would still have
to carry some form of payment that is not on their phone. The Vice President
said that it doesn’t matter how long it takes to replace cash and debit/credit
cards as long as they get there. With customers using Apple Pay, Apple gets a
percentage of each transaction, but Apple has to try to get more customers on
board, because this will depend on whether banks renew their contracts with
Apple.
Personally, I don't have an Apple phone, so I might be a bit biased. But I think that Apple Pay, while it may have its good features of speeding up purchases and whatnot, comes with a lot of potential problems (one of which you mentioned, the ease of your phone being hacked). Knowing that a portion of my payment is going to Apple doesn't sit too well with me. And the fact that, if more and more companies start using/accepting Apple Pay, assuming that the idea catches and then takes off, I feel that Android users would either be forced to switch to Apple or Android would come out with something similar to Apple Pay. All in all, I'm not a fan of the idea.
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