Apple is pouring on the coals with Apple Pay. The company is working with Square to allow small businesses to accept Apple Pay, and the service will launch in the UK in July with even more locations than the U.S. rollout in October 2014.
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Here are the highlights from the presentation of Apple's Jennifer Bailey, V.P. of Apple Pay, during the WWDC 2015 keynote.
1. In October, 2014, Apple Pay started with credit and debit cards from Visa, Master Card and American Express. 2,500 banks are now supporting Apple Pay.
2. This fall, with 50 million card members, Discover will add support.
3. Notable new merchants have been announced, including Trader Joe's, J.C. Penney, Kohls, Levi's, Lego and Baskin Robbins.
Image credit: Apple
4. Apple is working with Square to enable small businesses to accept Apple Pay. A new reader being launched that works with Apple Pay.
5. Apple Pay is projected to be accepted at 1 million locations in July, 2015.
6. Ms. Bailey showed a large number of new apps in the App Store that accept Apple Pay.
Image credit: Apple
7. New support via Pinterest is coming. You'll be able to purchase items at selected merchants within Pinterest app exclusively in iOS.
8. Apple is bringing Apple Pay to the UK in July. It will launch with eight of the most Popular banks representing 70 percent of credit and debit cards in UK. There will be 250,000 locations at launch. That's more than U.S. at launch. The London transportation system will accept Apple Pay.
Image credit: Apple
10. In iOS 9, we'll be able to add store credit cards and loyalty cards to Passbook, which becomes Apple Wallet. It will automatically present the right loyalty card, so we''ll never miss a benefit. The feature will extend to watchOS 2.0.
Image credit: Apple