by Dan Moren
After one year, this is the state of Apple Pay
Great rundown on Apple Pay, one year in, by MacStories’s Graham Spencer. He concludes with five questions for Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s VP of Apple Pay:
2. Given the slow rollout of Apple Pay outside the US, one could argue that Apple is more obsessed with securing profits from interchange fees than opening up Apple Pay to as many customers as possible and increasing the value of the iPhone and Apple Watch. How would you respond to that sentiment?
“Obsessed” may be a strong word: obviously, Apple wants to recoup its investment in rolling out this system worldwide, and I’m sure that expanding and maintaining profitably is ahead of just accruing marketshare–that’s tried-and-true Apple philosophy.
One question not on Spencer’s list that I’d like answered is whether or not we’ll see Apple Pay eventually used for the sale of digital goods. Right now, it’s pretty much restricted to physical goods, with companies being pushed towards in-app purchase–for which Apple gets a a 30 percent slice of the pie, far more than the fractions of percents it gets for Apple Pay–for subscriptions and digital goods. I’d hope there’s a rationale for that decision that doesn’t also come down to “Apple wants more money.”