By
Jason Snell
October 17, 2024 12:17 PM PT
It’s hard to believe Apple Pay launched a decade ago, and only slightly less hard to believe that we’ve reached the point that I can link to my decade-old story about using Apple Pay for the first time at my local Whole Foods:
“Oh, you’re going to try that?” Tyler said.
“Yep, I’m one of those people,” I said, and habitually placed my thumb on the phone, as if I was going to unlock it. Which was what I was going to do, but instead of doing that, I paid for groceries.
“Whoa, I don’t know what just happened,” Tyler said as the paper receipt popped out of the cash register’s printer.
Today Apple posted a Newsroom PR item celebrating the milestone while also announcing a few new wrinkles: additional installment loan support and the expansion of rewards support in participating cards. Unfortunately, the number of cards participating in the program are quite small—in the U.S. I believe it’s only Discover—but it does mean you can apply your Discover cashback or miles directly to an Apple Pay purchase if you want.
In the United States, Apple Pay has had the effect that I thought it would have: Tap-to-pay is now commonplace, in a way that it simply wasn’t before. The U.S. is now slightly less out of step with the rest of the world in that way. Express transit support has also been a gamechanger in about 20 cities.
However, I’m surprised that Apple’s other financial products—Apple Card and Apple Cash—have basically not gone anywhere. They’re still only available in the United States. Apple’s financial reach only goes so far, apparently.
If you appreciate articles like this one, support us by becoming a Six Colors subscriber. Subscribers get access to an exclusive podcast, members-only stories, and a special community.
