Apple Pay, which was announced at the iPhone 6 event in September of 2014, gives Apple users the ability to pay for products and services with a tap of their phones or watches using the credit or debit cards stored in their account. This service is available today for Apple users on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and MacBook computers in about 41 countries worldwide. Users authenticate their payments by using the biometric features embedded in their devices, such as Touch ID or Face ID and then simply tap the device on the NFC-enabled sale terminal to proceed with the transaction.
Google and Samsung Pay offer similar features as Apple Pay, and those two services are available for Android and Samsung users worldwide. Currently, Google Pay is available in over 29 countries, while Samsung Pay in 24 countries.
Merchants who wants to offer Apple, Google, or Samsung Pay has to have NFC-enabled sale terminals with software provided by one of these companies to be able to process transactions. When it comes availability, most major banks and credit card companies in the United States offers their credit and debit cards on all these platforms, with slight variations between the three. Also, all three services use similar NFC technologies and authentication techniques to provide the highest transactions’ security possible for their customers.
Apple has stepped up their game in the mobile payment market by introducing Apple Cash, which is another feature that enables users to send and receive money via text messages between iPhone users, as well as via Apple Pay. Apple Cash funds can be deposited or withdrawn directly to or from the users’ bank account or their debt cards. Another new feature that Apple introduced in June of 2019 is the Apple Card, which is a new digital credit card created by Apple with support from Goldman Sachs. The new credit card, which users can apply for directly from the Wallet app on their iPhone, offers more simplicity and fees transparency than traditional credit cards, and it is directly integrated with Apple Pay. The card offers users 3% direct daily cash back on Apple purchases, 2% on purchases made with Apple Pay, and 1% back on all other purchases made with their physical titanium card.
With this new card, Apple has smartly integrated their different payment systems together, where Apple Card customers use the card on their phones via Apple Pay, and then they get daily cash back which gets deposited directly to their Apple Cash card.
