One of the most amazing features available on iOS devices is to make payments using Touch ID with Apple Pay. Unfortunately, in India, we haven’t yet had the privilege of using it. However, according to some sources, Apple has started testing Apple Pay in India, and by the end of the year, the feature might be available in the country.
Apparently, the tech giant is in talks with various merchants including Starbucks and Croma stores and few private banks including HDFC, CitiBank and Standard Chartered to launch contactless payment systems in India that would be compatible with Apple Pay.
Apple Pay allows the users to pay directly for the goods or services purchased through their iPhones or Apple Watch. It securely stores the information from debit cards or credit cards in the Wallet app. However, the merchants will have to have the contactless machines which are compatible to Apple Pay. The user will enable the Face ID or Touch ID to authenticate the payment. Once the transaction is completed, the user will receive the notification on his/her phone.
The payment service now also works on MacBook with Touch ID. iPhone models post iPhone 6, including iPhone SE, can be used for Apple Pay. All Apple Watch variants support Apple Pay.
Since cardless payment services are doing well in India post-demonetization, people are likely also to embrace the Apple Pay service. Samsung’s Samsung Pay already exists in India that works exactly like Apple Pay (no surprises there), except it doesn’t need merchants to have the contactless machines to make it work. It will collaborate with any card payment machine which is certainly an advantage over Apple pay. Currently other payment apps like PayTM, Mobikwik and Ola Money etc. are widely used in Indian metro cities.
A few days back, Google has also launched their UPI based mobile payment app called Tez in India. The response for it has been very positive so far. It’s high time for Apple to launch its payment service in the India. Otherwise, competition will take over the market very soon.