Hands-on first impressions of Apple Pay -- "remarkably smooth"
Though not as sexy as new iPhones or Apple's newfangled Watch, Apple's foray into the world of mobile payments with Apple Pay has the potential to be a real game changer. If Apple Pay catches on, Tim Cook's statement that the platform will "forever change the way we buy things" will prove to be spot-on.
Yesterday, Apple allowed a few media outlets some time with Apple Pay and so far the first impressions appear to be overwhelmingly positive.
The Verge had some time to take Apple Pay for a test drive and found the experience "remarkably smooth."
The Touch ID functionality adds a real sense of security to the process, there's very little software fumbling, and in general everything seems like a cohesive user experience. It's nice.
Slashgear also seemed rather impressed with the implementation, calling the payment process "swift" and "pretty darn easy" to use.
Apple Pay is slated to go live in October with Apple expecting approximately 220,000 merchant locations to support it at launch. And in light of the recent iCloud hacking scandal, Apple's Eddy Cue made a concerted effort yesterday to highlight the secure nature of Apple Pay.
"Security and privacy is at the core of Apple Pay," Cue explained in an Apple press release. "When you're using Apple Pay in a store, restaurant or other merchant, cashiers will no longer see your name, credit card number or security code, helping to reduce the potential for fraud. Apple doesn't collect your purchase history, so we don't know what you bought, where you bought it or how much you paid for it."
And for good measure, here's one more hands-on video of Apple Pay in action, this one from TechCrunch.
