Apple Pay the digital payment service of Apple Inc., is gearing tot enter the indian market very soon in this year itself. The payment service developed by the Cupertino based Tech-Giant is already available in over 89 countries worldwide. However it wasn’t available to Indians, who were using other third party payment apps. Therefore Apple has decided to introduce Apple pay in India later this year, reports Business Standard.
Apple had been exploring an Indian launch of Apple Pay for quite some time however was not able to release it in India. Nonetheless acording to the Business Standard report Apple is in discussions with regulators, banks and card networks to bring the payment service to India.
What is Apple Pay?
Apple Pay is operated by Apple Payments Services, a subsidiary of Apple Inc., and works exclusively on Apple devices such as iPhones, Apple Watches, iPads and Macs. Unlike popular Indian payment apps such as Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm, Apple Pay does not support non-Apple devices.
What features will Apple pay provide?
In India, Apple Pay is anticipated to initially offer its contactless ‘tap-to-pay’ feature, which allows users to make payments by tapping their Apple devices on point-of-sale terminals using near-field communication (NFC). Users can store their credit and debit card details on Apple Wallet and make payments without physically swiping cards.
To enable the service, Apple will need to finalise commercial arrangements with major card issuers, including fees payable for using the payment gateway, states the report. Currently, Indian users are unable to add credit or debit cards to Apple Wallet.
What lies ahead?
India’s payments landscape is dominated by the Unified Payments Interface, which operates under the oversight of the National Payments Corporation of India.
Thereofore the localised release of Apple Pay would require deep integration with NPCI systems, compliance with Reserve Bank of India data localisation rules, and alignment with existing payment rails. These factors have historically made India a challenging market for global wallet players.
There are, however, signs of incremental movement. Apple Pay has begun appearing more frequently as an accepted option for international bookings and services offered by Indian companies. Akasa Air recently became the first Indian airline to accept Apple Pay for international flight bookings, signalling growing backend readiness among Indian merchants for Apple’s payment platform.
