We 'will never go back' to a world without contactless payments, says Cook

Apple Pay (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Tim Cook was asked about Apple Card, Apple Cash, and more at today's earnings call.
The CEO said that both Apple Card and Apple Cash are doing well.
He also said that the pandemic is changing the landscape of the contactless payments market.

During today's Q4 earnings call, Tim Cook was asked by Krish Sankar from Cowen & Co. about how the CEO and Apple as a whole are currently thinking about its payments ecosystem, including its products like Apple Card, Apple Pay, and Apple Pay Cash.

Tim Cook responded by saying that Apple Card and Apple Pay are performing well and that Apple continues to be "very enthusiastic" about their payments services.

"Thanks for the question is there's just a limited number of things I can talk about, the only reason I didn't talk about it. We continue to be very enthusiastic about the whole payment services area. Apple Card is doing well and Apple Pay is doing exceptionally well."

Cook went on to talk more about contactless payments in general. The CEO believes that the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of contactless payments and that adoption will never subside. He also mentioned that, without giving away any details, Apple has opportunities to do even more in the space.

"As you can imagine, in this environment, people are less want to hand over a card. So this contactless payment has taken on a different level of adoption in it that, I think, will never go back. The U.S. has been lagging a bit in contactless payment, and I think that the pandemic may well put the U.S. on a different trajectory there. And so we're we are very bullish about this area and view that there are more things that Apple can do in this space. And so it's an area of great interest to us."

If you'd like to learn more about today's Q4 earnings call, you can read the full transcript.

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.

1 Comment

To put that in perspective: in these first ten months of 2020, I have made less than ten cash payments, and none at all invoking handing over a card. I'm in the Netherlands. Here, using debit cards prevails, and using banking apps on smartphones is on the rise. I have not yet activated Apple Pay, as I don't feel a need to add a detour to a straightforward transaction. These debit cards have an NFC chip. So has my credit card, but I haven't used that for years outside the Internet.