Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook has called 2015 the “year of Apple Pay.” So far it’s been underwhelming.
The mobile-payments system, which marks its one-year anniversary this month, has failed to catch on with consumers, accounting for only 1 percent of all retail transactions in the U.S., according to researcher Aite Group. The service — which allows users to pay for purchases by tapping their iPhone or Apple Watch on a device at cash registers — has suffered from a lack of promotion and limited number of terminals available in stores. Plus Apple Pay is available only on newer iPhones.
“People don’t know why it is they’d use Apple Pay,” said Jared Schrieber, CEO of InfoScout, a shopper-research firm.
A similar feature had been available in Google Inc.’s smartphones through Wallet since 2011, yet adoption was anemic, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Competitors have followed — Samsung Pay and Google’s Android Pay were introduced this year — but the consumer hasn’t yet.
Merchants who adopted the system say that demand has been tepid. Panera Bread Co., one of the retail locations where Apple Pay debuted last October, said the service accounts for “low single digits” of the restaurant chain’s in-store transactions. Bloomberg News
