Reuters: the majority of top US retailers don't even plan to accept Apple Pay this year

Fast forward a pregnancy or so, and the things aren't looking that rosy for Apple Pay. Besides all the competing mobile payment systems, like Visa's payWave, or MasterCard's PayPass, not to mention the various carrier undertakings, such as Softcard in the US, which got acquired by Google, or smaller initiatives like that of Paypal, or Boku, a new formidable entrant went into the fray. No, we aren't talking about the recent Android Pay announcement, but Samsung Pay, as its system allows for easy payments as if you use a magnetic stripe card, without the need for merchants to install special POS equipment, like with Apple Pay.

How exactly did this dedicated terminal requirement affect the proliferation of Apple Pay? Well, according to a fresh Reuters survey, out of the top 100 U.S. retailers, less than a quarter are currently accepting Apple Pay. Actually, two thirds of the respondents said their retail chains don't even plan to implement Apple's mobile payment system this year. The reasons? Extra equipment required to process transactions, lack of real customer demand, and lack of unrestricted data access to the payment statistics. This doesn't bode well for the Apple Pay crusade in the US this year, so we are very curious to see how Samsung Pay will fare once it launches here in the fall, as it doesn't require any modifications on par of the brick-and-mortar retailer.

source: Reuters