Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

Apple Pay rolling out to more than 200,000 websites as it make jump to desktops

Kyle Wiggers
By

Apple Pay Websites
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Apple Pay, iPhone maker Apple’s eponymous payment platform, is making the jump from mobile to desktop. As exclusively reported by Digital Trends in June, Apple’s burgeoning payments platform will launch on the web in the coming days.

The Apple Pay launch coincides with the release of iOS 10 this week and macOS Sierra on September 20, and it’ll work much as it currently does within iPhone apps. On websites that support it, a “checkout with Apple Pay” button will appear as a payment option. Tap it and you’ll have the option of authorizing purchases with a fingerprint via Apple’s Touch ID feature. Transactions are protected with “strong encryption,” Apple said, and aren’t recorded by its retail partners. Every payment generates a randomized string of numbers, a so-called Device Account Number, that’s transmitted via a secure chip in Apple devices. “You no longer need to share credit or debit card numbers with an online merchant,” Apple said. “Actual card numbers are not stored on your device, nor on Apple servers.”

Recommended Videos

It’s not without issues. Apple Pay only works on Apple’s Safari browser right now, and completing checkout on a Mac requires that Bluetooth and Apple’s Continuity feature be enabled — you’ll need an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch signed into the same iCloud account as your Mac.

Related

There’s no shortage of launch partners. Time, Inc. announced earlier this week that customers will be able to use Apple Pay to purchase subscriptions to its magazines including Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, People, and Real Simple. Furniture and home décor purveyor Wayfair announced support for Apple Pay in early September, as did payment processors Vantiv, Big Commerce, Squarespace, Stripe, Demandware, IBM, and Shopify. And at its Worldwide Developer Conference in June, Apple said that more than 70 partners — including Abercrombie & Fitch, British Airways, Burberry, Conde Nast, Fandango, Hollister, Hotels.com, JetBlue, Lululemon, Nike, Office Depot, Saks Fifth Avenue, Staples, Target, Expedia, Etsy, Travelocity, Under Armour, and United Airlines — would launch Apple Pay-compatible shopping carts this fall. Apple said that more than 200,000 websites would roll out support for Apple Pay on the web in the coming weeks.

Apple Pay is entering a well-established market. PayPal has more than 188 million registered users and processed 4.9 billion payments last year. And it’s not just incumbents which threaten Apple’s payments growth. Google, at its I/O developer conference in June, announced that Android Pay, its nascent payments platform, would launch as a payment option on websites including Groupon, 1-80o-Flowers, and “more” later this year.

Apple Pay has the advantage of momentum, though. Earlier this year, Apple said that Apple Pay has been adding 1 million new users per week. And in July, CEO Tim Cook said that more than three-fourths of contactless payments in the U.S. were made using Apple Pay.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kyle Wiggers
Kyle Wiggers
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…
Every phone company wants a walled garden as nice as Apple’s
Boxes for an Apple Watch, iPhones, and Airpods sit on a desk.

At its annual developer conference, WWDC 2022, Apple will give us a preview of what the next versions of iOS, MacOS, watchOS, and tvOS bring to its enviably reliable ecosystem. However, to others, the same ecosystem is often likened to a walled garden, with attractive but carnivorous plants that make for a pleasing entry but an arduous and frustrating exit. But over those walls, some are peeking in with envious eyes.
How has Apple built such an impressively sticky ecosystem, and why do others want so desperately to replicate it?
Lured and locked in

Apple has long kept people closely tied to its ecosystem of products. Those who own one Apple product are often drawn to buy more. The harmony with which products work with each other is (primarily) what fuels this obsession. Even though Apple products are not flawless, the general notion is that they are great at what they are supposed to do -- and that perception contributes to Apple's success. Statista notes that Apple was the world's top-most technology company in terms of its market value in 2021.  
But it's not because of the devices alone that Apple's ecosystem thrives. Apple's operating systems and its suite of applications are intended to be exclusive to Apple devices -- a strategy it has always maintained, but especially since Steve Jobs's return to the company. But while this exclusivity grants Apple owners bragging rights in front of others, it also compels them to stay confined within the proverbial walls of its glamorous garden. 
Apple's methodology has always been to lock you into the ecosystem. In today's setting, escaping the hardware is easier but transitioning from a familiar software tool to another can cause headaches. Apple keeps its garden walls high, and by maintaining superior hardware quality and compelling people to purchase subscriptions to its services, scaling the walls becomes a herculean task. It's not always an overtly obvious lock-in either, it's the way many features "just work" together that's equally as effective.
For example, Apple devices feature Handoff, which allows multiple actions between devices, and AirDrop lets you quickly share documents and files between Apple devices, while tools such as Sidecar and Universal Control allow seamlessly integrated use of your Mac and iPad. Even Apple's iMessage locks people in by displaying messages sent from outside the Apple ecosystem in green, while those from Apple devices show up in blue. It has led to the system being called discriminatory towards non-Apple users.
Besides controlling individual apps, Apple rigorously controls how you install them. Apple inherently opposes sideloading apps on iPhone and iPad citing security concerns. 
Every company wants an ecosystem

Read more
Why Apple Arcade isn’t the cross-platform utopia we were promised
Apple Arcade Multi-platform lifestyle image

Despite calls from the press and some members of the public for Apple to merge iOS and MacOS, the tech giant continues to plug its fingers in its ears and insist it’s not happening. And you know what? It’s the right approach. But weirdly, Apple is accidentally demonstrating what a disaster this merger would be using one of its own products: Apple Arcade.

You see, Apple Arcade is a showcase for all that’s wrong with taking two very different operating systems and mashing them together into a mixed-up medley where no one wins. Because developers have to make games that work on the tiniest iPhone and the largest iMac, they are forced into compromises that weaken the games on both platforms.

Read more
Everything Apple announced at WWDC 2021: iOS 15, MacOS Monterey, and more
Tim Cook Apple WWDC 2021

The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is one of the biggest events of the year for Apple developers, and this year's show is no different. Apple announced key updates across its entire ecosystem, with new releases for iOS on the iPhone, MacOS on the Mac, iPadOS for its line of tablets, WatchOS on Apple Watch, and so much more.

"We're excited to share our latest technologies with you and with the incredible community of millions of Apple developers around the world," Apple CEO Tim Cook said as he kicked off WWDC 2021 to an audience of developers represented by Memoji. "Your creativity and groundbreaking apps continue to deliver new and meaningful ways to enrich people's lives,"  "We've continued to look for ways to cultivate the next generation of developers, with an emphasis on those underrepresented in technology."

Read more