CUPERTINO, Calif.–Apple is stealthily but strategically sneaking up to grab share in an area that could be a great threat to credit unions—payments, according to one person.
“While everyone else races to be the first to release the latest innovation, Apple sits back and shares what it plans to do, while letting others do it first,” cautioned Kelly Main, writing on Inc.com. “The brilliance for Apple is not just its innovation capabilities, but it's approach to launching products strategically, entering the market seemingly late--when in reality, it arrives with perfect timing. In doing so, it has become a unicorn with an annual revenue of over $274 billion. It has done it time and time again, and this time it’s doing it with the payments processing industry.”
In 2015 Apple introduced Apple Pay, with which numerous credit unions have partnered. But adoption has been slower than expected by many analysts, noted Main.
‘Looking to Eliminate It’
“However, Apple isn't out to pursue an innovation as trivial as to tapping instead of swiping,” stated Main. “It's not even looking to simply transform the checkout process. It's looking to eliminate it, or at least eliminate it in the way in which we know it.”
Main noted the future of the register-free checkout is already in the works. As CUToday.info reported, Amazon continues to expand its register-free retail outlets, including a supermarket in E Connecticut. And this isn't the first of its kind.
“The future of in-store retail shopping will evolve into a checkout-free checkout process that involves no cashiers, no lines, no tills,” the Inc.com analysis suggests. “Just pick out the products you want and off you go, where the card reader at the exit will automatically pick up your products and your card information, similar to how the electronic toll collection systems function, like E-Z Pass. And Apple Pay will be the first payment processing system that enables businesses to easily implement contactless payments.”
Not Just ‘Sitting Around’
Until the market adapts and adopts the concept of cashier-free checkout, Main said, Apple is simply sitting on Apple Pay.
“But that doesn't mean Apple is just sitting around,” Main wrote. “In the meantime, it's working to lower barriers to entry and increase the adoption of Apple Pay. And because many aren't ready for what Apple Pay offers, Apple is offering the Apple Card, something familiar in the minds of consumers everywhere, and thus a product that is widely accepted by the mass market.
“As more people acquire the Apple Card, the formerly foreign concept of making payments via a tech product company known for computers, phones, and similar devices, Apple becomes synonymous with payments,” the analysis continued. “And with that, once Apple has its foot in the door, and a tool in consumer's wallets, it can then more easily grow its adoption of Apple Pay.”