Four years after launch in United States, customers will also be able to pay in Germany via Apple Pay. This was announced by CEO Tim Cook at a conference presenting current quarterly figures. Which banks or credit card companies are participating is not yet clear.

Apple Pay is a mobile payment method in which an iphone or Apple Watch replaces EC or credit card. To pay you simply keep devices in shop at terminal. The POS technology has to support contactless payment via NFC radio – a large part of terminals in Germany has already been converted accordingly. You can also pay for online purchases and apps with Apple Pay.

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A lot of speculation has been made about launch of Apple Pay in Germany in recent years. Tim Cook had introduced system in September 2014, in many or European countries such as France, Switzerland, Spain or Austria, service was introduced in meantime.

After years of niche existence, offers for paying by smartphone are now also increasing in Germany. A few weeks ago, Google released its competitive service in Germany, only this week savings banks started ir own service. It is still difficult to see how willing Germans are to pay for mobile. They like to pay cash, even at higher amounts, y whip out comparatively seldom card, not to mention smartphone with a payment app.

On iphone, only Apple Pay can access NFC chip of device that is needed for contactless payment. This means that banks have to restrict mselves to devices with Google system Android in ir own offers or to avoid less convenient solutions such as bar codes on screen for iphone users.

Apple approaches Billionengrenze

Apple Pay is currently available in 24 markets, said Cook. In past quarter, a billion transactions were transacted over service – more than three times as many as in previous year. In home market USA you can already buy mobile system since autumn 2014.

The announcement to introduce Apple Pay at end of year in Germany was made by Tim Cook during presentation of current business results, with which group again exceeded expectations of many analysts. The company increased its sales in previous quarter by 17 percent to 53.3 billion dollars. The quarterly profit rose by 32 percent to a good 11.5 billion dollars. The expensive iphone x refore continues to sell well. According to cook, 1,000 euro unit was again most popular model. Apple’s share price rose by more than three percent in trading trading on Tuesday. The trade price increase raised company’s value to over 960 billion dollars – and is approaching Billionengrenze.