Apple Pay, one of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Fintech incursions, is now authorized on 75% of iPhones, according to a report in WSJ. Simultaneously, 90% of US retailers accept the form of digital payments.
Pointing to research by Loup Ventures, the missive states that in 2016 a mere 10 of iPhones had activated Apple Pay. Jump to the future and now the vast majority have turned on the form of digital money, meaning billions of dollars in transactions are taking place on the iPhone and Apple garners a small sliver of that transaction. While small, over time, this should add up to a meaningful business – especially when you add in the Apple Card, Apple Cash, and Apple’s BNPL product along with term loans for purchases.
As was reported this past April, in research provided by Piper Sandler, Apple Pay beat out Venmo (part of PayPal – NASDAQ:PYPL) when it came the youngs using a digital payment app, meaning Apple Pay is probably here to stay – at least for a while. It also helps that almost 90% of teens use an iPhone.
While there is a lot of chatter around digital wallets and crypto, in certain respects digital payments and digital currency are already here and widely adopted. While blockchain tech may provide a less costly and more streamlined set of payment rails, transactions will probably continue to be dominated by the iPhone (which could adopt distributed ledger technology).