Apple Pay Could Launch On Saturday
By Nick Tylwalk
If you’ve been waiting anxiously to pay for things with the NFC tech inside your iPhone 6 (and eventually, your Apple Watch), here’s some good news: you might be doing it by the end of this week.
A few days ago, MacRumors posted an internal memo to Walgreens store managers suggesting that they get their employees ready to help customers with questions about Apple Pay since the drugstore chain is one of the first participating retailers. Since the first line of the memo is “In preparation for the launch of Apple Pay on October 18,” this is a pretty clear hint that the service could be rolling out on Saturday.
Of course there’s an Apple event this Thursday, which is expected to focus on the iPad Air 2. But since that device is also rumored to be equipped with NFC capabilities, this could all dovetail together pretty nicely.
In other words, while it’s still a rumor for now, don’t be shocked if Apple talks Apple Pay at some point on Thursday and people are using it by Saturday. It’ll be the best test yet to see if mobile payments are ready to take off the way they haven’t to this point.