Apple Pay Comes to Starbucks, Chili's and KFC Next Year

Apple Pay comes to Starbucks next year, says Apple exec. Apple Pay is also heading for Chili’s and KFC. Soon, you’ll be able to pay for your favorite latte, spicy wings and scrumptious egg rolls with your Apple Watch.

Over the the next year, Apple’s mobile payment service dubbed Apple Pay will be featured in Starbucks coffee shops, says vice president of Apple Pay Jennifer Bailey during the Code Mobile conference. However, by the end of 2015 there will be some select Apple-owned Starbucks stores rolling out the mobile payment service. Approximately 7.500 stores will be Apple Pay enabled next year.

Bailey notes that Apple Pay has gained momentum and more and more merchants are opting in. Also, more than 80 percent of Apple Watch owners are actively using it. Moreover, next spring Apple Pay will hit KFC restaurants. Chili will also opt in for the new paying system, but they company did not disclose how many restaurants will feature the new system.

The ability to turn our smartphone into a digital wallet has been hyped for the past couple of years. Yet, only now Android and Apple Pay are seemingly sparking interest in consumers. Apple was the first company to jump start the trend during last year’s venture into contactless mobile payments.

After almost 72 hours after its debut, Apple Pay witnessed over 1 million cred cards used.

Consumers using Apple Watch and newer iPhone models can pay on the go at retailers that support Apple Pay – payment is done via NFC, which is near-field communication technology. Touch ID devices like the iPad Mini 3 and the iPad Air 2 are also capable of in-app purchases. Last month’s iOS 9 update offers users the possibility of consolidating their loyalty – it also offers cards as rewards.

Apple Pay will be enabled in select Apple-owned Starbucks by the end of the year

Apple and Starbucks, sitting in a tree…

We recently talked about Apple’s tokenization system and what it entails. The bottom line is that retailers and merchants never see your data. Samsung Pay works almost the same way, but the consensus is that it’s more secure than Apple Pay.

Apple’s mobile payment service was launched in 2014. Back then, about 500 financial institutions partnered with Apple, along with 220.000 US merchant locations. As of mid 2015, over 2.500 banks support Apple Pay with 1 million retailers, restaurants, merchants accepting the mobile payment service.

Apple says that by the end of the year there will be more than 1.5 million US locations that will support their system. Yet, Google is upping up their game and bringing their hard guns into play. Also, Samsung brought their very own Pay service into the US last month.

Because Apple Pay comes to Starbucks next year, it can very well be a decisive factor which will propel the Cupertino-based company into becoming the most used mobile payment service.

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Roxanne Briean

I am a geek, a gamer and a writer. I have always been fascinated with the online community. At the moment I work as a full-time writer and study interior design. When I'm not scouring the net in search of interesting new gadgets and software I spend my time in MOBAs or drawing.