The Macalope wishes there was some phrase about lies and statistics that he could use. He really does. Alas, no one has ever made one up so we’ll just have to wade into this piece about Apple Pay on our own. Sad, really.
Writing for The Motley Fool, Sam Mattera asks “Is Anyone Using Apple Pay?”
[Confusedly raises hoof.]
That sound you hear now is the gears grinding as we downshift from “Apple Pay” in the headline to “mobile payments” in the subhead.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Recent surveys from Trustev suggest most consumers aren’t using Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, or Android Pay.
Remember way back when it was just Apple Pay people weren’t using? Three seconds ago in the headline? Ah, we were so young and full of dreams back then! You still had all your hair! And those mutton chops! What were you thinking?! You dreamed of making it big on the BMX circuit. What happened to you, Ted? Did you ever visit Fiji? Did you ever tell Gayle how you felt about her?
What happened to us, man? Where did those three seconds go?
Few consumers are taking advantage of Apple’s mobile payment service, Apple Pay, according to a recent series of surveys from Trustev.
An organization you have never heard of before but now you have.
Just to round this out a bit, a survey conducted by Wristly reports that 51 percent of Apple Watch users find Apple Pay on the Watch “magical” and it’s availability that’s the big problem. 96 percent wish they could use it more places. (Note that the results of these surveys are not necessarily contradictory other than in tone.)
Trustev surveyed 1,000 consumers who owned Apple Pay-compatible iPhones about their Apple Pay habits. … It found that about 80% had not used Apple Pay even once. Of the 20% who had, most (56%) only used it about once a week.
How many Apple Pay-capable phones has Apple sold? It’s hard to say exactly, but it’s probably in the 200 million range. That would mean that a year after its introduction, something like 40 million people are using Apple Pay once a week or more. Which is basically nothing, what an abject failure.
Apple, Samsung and Google clearly know nothing about this market and who we should be listening to is this survey company we’ve never heard of.
About one-third of Apple Pay-compatible iPhone owners and 39% of Samsung Galaxy owners said they simply didn’t care about mobile payments.
So, you’re saying that the people who have not tried mobile payments do not care about mobile payments. That really is surprising. Important context.
Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Android Pay are, in many ways, better than paying with a traditional credit card or using cash, but they’re not significantly better.
Actually, they can be. The Macalope has heard several people talk about how they forgot their wallets at home but were still able to purchase things because they obviously didn’t leave the house without their phone. Like that’s a thing you’d ever do. What are you, an animal? Also, Apple Pay can allow you to continue to use a card while the card issuer sends you a new one after a fraud incident.
Now, the Macalope hears you, dear reader. “Macalope,” you say, slowly putting down your copy of The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. “Is this not the same Sam Mattera who declared the Asus PadFone to be an iPhone and Samsung Galaxy-killer?” Yes! You are correct about that! That is a thing he wrote without exploding from an excessive buildup of wrongness particles. Science can’t explain it, but it happened.
Mobile payments are not going to take off overnight. There’s probably a class of user that will never use it until the day they die. When they’ll use it to buy a casket.
“I guess I might as well try this out,” Grandpa moaned. “Hey! That was really eas-“ [flatline]
Apple, Samsung and Google are all playing a long game. Not every game is won on a Hail Mary.
Actually, most aren’t.