Apple Pay had to bear the wrath of major retailers in the past few days, as it got blocked by major retailers including Walmart, Best Buy and drug stores like CVS and Rite Aid. Now, Tim Cook has fired back on them, saying that retailers around the world are ready to sign up.
Talking about Apple Pay’s success on Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference, Cook lashed out at retailers, who have been busy blocking Apple Pay, in order to prepare a launch pad for a similar, in-house payment system called CurrentC. The payment sysytem has the backing of over 50 retail outlets, including Walmart.
Cook said,
We’ve got a lot more merchants to sign up, we’ve got a lot of banks to sign up and we’ve got the rest of the world
He also gave out specifics regarding Apple Pay’s reach. Though being the newest entrant in the field of such type of payment gateways, Apple Pay has already garnered over 1 Million users in just 72 hours of operation. It has raked up more transactions than all other “contact less” payment methods combined, Cook said, citing Visa and Mastercard data.
Though such payment gateways, where users hold a smartphone near a payment terminal to pay, have been around for quite some time, tey haven’t really gained much traction, even after backing of influential players like Google. But, with Apple’s recent foray into this field, it has suddenly come to life,with major retailers already planning to launch a similar system in coming few weeks.
