Research firm: 1 percent of payments in the US go through Apple Pay

About 1 percent of retail transactions in the United States are made through Apple Pay. This has been calculated by analyst firm Aite Group. Apple itself speaks of a monthly growth in ‘double digits’ for the payment system.

A chief executive of a chain of stores that have started offering Apple Pay says Apple has done little to promote its payment system so far, Bloomberg writes. Partly because of this, it would not be used as much as retailers had expected beforehand. It’s unknown if Apple’s “double-digit” growth is meeting its own expectations.

A significant portion of US users of an iPhone 6 or 6s, the first iPhones on which the payment system worked, have tried Apple Pay at least once. According to a recent poll, this would be 42 percent of the owners, although results vary widely by poll and by period.

The release of Apple Pay has sparked a lot of activity among competitors. For example, Android 6.0 contains Google’s alternative Android Pay, while Samsung is also working on its own payment system. Apple has only released its smartphone or watch payment system on the iPhone 6 or later, because the transactions require an NFC chip that previous iPhones don’t have. Apple Pay has been operating in the United States for about a year. The payment system now also works in the United Kingdom, but is not yet active in the Benelux.