Apple has a vast ecosystem of services and apps, and Apple Pay is one of its most popular offerings. While the service is currently available in 89 countries across the globe, India has remained outside its reach. That, however, may soon change.
According to reports, Apple is planning to launch Apple Pay in India by the end of this year. The company has reportedly been in discussions with Indian regulatory bodies, banks, and card service providers for some time to make this possible. While this would be a very welcome move, it hardly comes as a surprise. Apple’s growing interest in India has been pretty obvious for a while now.
From the rising number of Apple Stores in the country to the expansion of AppleCare+ coverage, launching Fitness+, and now the potential arrival of Apple Pay—Apple is clearly doubling down on the Indian market—which is great, for us Indian users. I say, “keep ‘em coming”.
In India, Apple Pay is expected to roll out with its contactless “tap-to-pay” feature. This means that users will be able to store their credit and debit card details in Apple Wallet and make secure payments without physically swiping their cards. As expected, the service will be exclusive to Apple devices, unlike other payment apps that work across both Android and iOS.
To enable the service, Apple will need to finalise commercial agreements with major card issuers, and there hasn’t been any confirmation on that front yet. For now, I suppose we’ll just have to wait until the end of the year—or at least the second half of it—to see whether these rumours turn into reality.
