Yes, though we are not confirmed, but Apple is indeed planning to bring its payment system to India, along with several other countries. Apple’s interest in India’s rapidly growing market has been growing ever since it launched the iPhone6. Introduction of Apple Pay may be yet another example of the same.
Sources at various levels have suggested that Apple is planning to roll out Apple Pay in India, probably by the mid of 2015. However, no official date for the same has been revealed.
Apple Pay is a mobile payment and digital wallet service by Apple Inc. that lets users make payments using the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and other Apple devices. Apple Pay is a replacement for credit and debit cards as it allows users to make payments via NFC-based wireless communication between the device and the point of sale systems. Popular cards like Visa, MasterCard and American Express are already supported by Apple Pay.
It is reported that Apple is currently working on roll-out of Apple Pay feature to many other regions which include India, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Various sources report that Apple is currently working with internal and external partners, issuers, payment networks and merchants to roll-out this feature. There is no specific announcement or timeline of launch, but we can expect the launch in mid 2015.
However, introduction of Apple Pay may still take a lot of time in India, specially because of Indian customers’ die-hard belief in doing payments via cash. Indians aren’t really famous for making payments via cards, even though Government has been publicising the same for years now. Thus, widespread use of Apple Pay still looks distant, though its introduction will definitely create excitement.
We’ve contacted Apple for comments on the same, and will update you as soon as we receive one.
