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Apple Pay
This is r2 (the current revision), saved by jack. Full history
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Apple Pay
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| Operator | Apple |
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| Launched | October 20, 2014 (iPhone 6, iOS 8.1) |
| How it works | NFC + tokenized card numbers · Face ID/Touch ID · Secure Enclave |
| Family | Wallet app · Apple Card · Apple Cash · Tap to Pay on iPhone |
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Apple Pay turned the iPhone into a wallet: tap to pay with a tokenized card number the merchant never sees, authorized by a glance or a fingerprint, secured in the Apple silicon Secure Enclave. Launched in 2014 against skepticism from retailers and banks alike, it became the default contactless payment method across much of the world.
1 History✎
Adoption tracked contactless infrastructure — instant in transit-tap cities, slower in swipe-card America until the pandemic normalized tapping. The system grew into a family: Apple Cash for person-to-person money, Apple Card as the native credit card, Tap to Pay (2022) turning iPhones into merchant terminals, and transit, ID, and key cards absorbed into Wallet. A short-lived in-house installment plan, Apple Pay Later, gave way to bank-provided financing options. Regulators pried the NFC chip open — the EU's DMA forced third-party wallet access in 2024 — without denting the default's gravity.
2 Position✎
Apple Pay is the quietest pillar of the services business: a per-transaction toll on a meaningful slice of world commerce, a privacy story banks can't match, and the layer that makes the Apple Watch and iPhone literal replacements for the back pocket. It is Apple's deepest reach into daily infrastructure — payments as an ecosystem feature.
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