US as early as this summer.
At its Worldwide Developers Conference, which
starts Monday, Apple may announce the
upcoming debut of Apple Pay in the United
Kingdom , the UK-based Telegraph has reported.
Citing unnamed industry sources, the news site
said the service will roll out there sometime in
needed for Apple Pay to work in the UK is
already in place, according to the Telegraph, as
retailers have invested in the necessary
contactless debit- and credit-card payment
systems.
Apple Pay launched in the US in October as
Apple's first venture into contactless mobile
payments. Using an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus or
Apple Watch, you can pay for items on the go at
supported retailers via NFC (near-field
communication) technology. Apple has been
drumming up support for Apple Pay among
more and more banks and retailers in the US,
but to truly gain a foothold on the market, Apple
Pay needs to expand globally, especially as
such rivals services as Google's Android Pay
and Samsung Pay start to ramp up.
Expanding Apple Pay globally is more of a
challenge than it may sound. Reports have
surfaced that Apple has also been chatting with
banking and financial firms in China and
Canada about supporting the payments system.
However, there are obstacles.
Apple gets a 0.15 percent cut of the 2 percent
fee paid by retail merchants for each credit card
payment and half a penny for each debit card
payment conducted through Apple Pay. But
Chinese banks don't want to give that
percentage to Apple , an employee of one large
bank told MarketWatch in April. Apple CEO Tim
Cook said in May that he was "very bullish on
Apple Pay in China" but revealed no details as
to how negotiations were proceeding.
The situation is also dicey in Canada where
banks are balking at the financial terms
involved in supporting Apple Pay, the Wall
Street Journal said in April. Though Apple has
reportedly been talking with several Canadian
banks about a possible Apple Pay rollout in
November, the banks themselves would have
to kick in transaction fees that they consider too
high, one source said.
Another challenge may have surfaced in the UK
as well.
In December, the Telegraph reported that
Apple had been been speaking with top British
banks about adopting Apple Pay. But at least
one bank was purportedly concerned about the
access that Apple would gain to the personal
and financial information of its customers.
However, that concern may have been
addressed since then, assuming Apple Pay truly
is set to hit the UK in another couple of months.
Even in the US, though, Apple Pay is struggling
to become more ubiquitous. All of the major
credit cards and many of the major banks
support it. But the retail side is another story.
Apple continues to sign up more major
retailers, but many still hesitate to jump
onboard.
In a poll of the National Retail Federation's list
of the top 100 U.S. retail chains, Reuters
reported last week, less than a quarter said
they accept Apple Pay and almost two-thirds
said categorically they would not accept it this
year. Only four chains said they plan to add
support for Apple Pay in the next year.
The reasons?
Retailers cited such factors as a lack of sufficient
customer demand for Apple Pay, the inability to
access the customer data collected in Apple Pay
transactions and the cost in implementing the
necessary technology. Some chains said they
were bypassing Apple Pay in order to join
CurrentC, a rival mobile wallet system
supported by a coalition of retailers known as
the Merchant Customer Exchange. Led by Wal-
Mart and other top chains, CurrentC is
scheduled to roll out sometime later this year.
Regardless of Reuters' report, Apple Pay has
found a footing. As of March, it worked at more
than 700,000 sites, including retail outlets,
vending machines and parking meters.
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