Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook is taking part in WSJ.D Live, a tech conference being held by the Wall Street Journal in Laguna Beach, California. At the event, Cook spoke about his company's newest products and expressed satisfaction with the early returns. He focused especially on Apple Pay, the mobile payments platform that went live on October 20. According to Cook, more than one million credit cards were activated within the first 72 hours of availability.
That puts Apple Pay clearly in the lead of the contactless payments market, with 220,000 stores nationwide, including several major retailers such as McDonald's, Walgreens and Whole Foods, joining in from day one. Many more are expected to support Apple Pay over the course of the coming months, and Cook is optimistic that those retailers that have resisted so far will soon come around, driven by their customers' enthusiastic response to Apple Pay.
"You are only relevant as a merchant or retailer if your customers love you," he said. "It's the first and only mobile payment system that's easy, private and secure."
The six biggest issuers of credit cards, which account for 83 percent of all transactions in the United States, are signed up, as are American Express, MasterCard and Visa. About 500 banks will be included by early 2015. Cook also spoke about the company's positive financial results, and said they expect iPhone sales to remain their biggest asset for at least the next three to five years.
Specialized IT consultants can provide Apple support to businesses that want to make the most of the company's latest innovations, which will continue coming over the next few months.
