Apple Pay Cash Rolls Out at Last
Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) Venmo-clone Apple Pay Cash is finally rolling out. The peer-to-peer (P2P) payment app is supposed to be part of iOS 11.2; which is scheduled for release on 9 December 2017, The Verge reported.
If it works as advertised, Apple Pay Cash will let people send money to friends and family through iMessages. The premiere of Apple Pay Cash shows just how far behind Apple is in the payment wars.
The first version of PayPal’s (NASDAQ: PYPL) Venmo was released back in 2009; eight years ago. Apple is not behind the curve here, it seems to be stuck in the last decade. Nor is it just Venmo, that has beaten Apple to the punch; Square’s (NYSE: SQ) Square Cash has been on the market since 2013.
Apple Pay Cash is a Desperate Attempt to Remain Relevant not a Venmo Killer
Apple’s offering is too little and possibly too late. Amusingly, America’s tech journalists hailed Apple’s addition of an eight-year-old technology to Apple Pay and iMessages as a “major development.” Business Insider even called it a “Venmo Killer.”
A better description of Apple Pay Cash would be a desperate attempt to remain relevant. The only place where Apple Pay Cash can be realistically called a Venmo Killer is in an American newsroom. Far from being widely used, Apple Pay is not accepted at most large American retailers such as Walmart and Costco.
Such headlines show just how gullible and hopelessly out of it, American tech journalists are. Apple is playing a desperate game of catch up with PayPal and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG), Square, and possibly Tencent Holdings (OTC: TCEHY) and Ant Financial in mobile payments.
PayPal already owns the market through Venmo. Apple is desperately trying to make its phones relevant to Millennials; people under 35 years of age, that use Venmo a lot. Perhaps it is time for editors and publishers to start hiring a few Millennials.
If I was editing a tech publication these days I would ask to see job applicants’ phones and hire the person with the latest model Android, then tell the guy with the iPhone to look elsewhere. The person with the Android actually knows something about tech; the iPhone owner just proved he or she is clueless.
Google just introduced the real Venmo and Apple Pay Killer App: TEZ
Apple Pay faces a massive threat from a Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) solution most Americans won’t see coming. That solution is TEZ, which might be the most disruptive payment app yet.
TEZ is a combination QR-code activated mobile wallet, P2P solution, and digital wallet that is being rolled out in India. Indians can do all sorts of things with TEZ including pay utility bills, send money to friends and families, and make brick and mortar purchases. If the ability to get cash from ATMs is added to TEZ it will be an Apple Pay killer.
TEZ is not available in America yet, but it might come at any time and unlike Apple Pay get into Walmart (NYSE: WMT). Walmart supports QR-Code solutions, and its QR-Code mobile wallet Walmart Pay maybe growing faster than Apple Pay. If TEZ comes to North America; and gets into Walmart and integrated with Android Pay, Apple Pay will be dead in the water.
Even though TEZ was rolled out in September; and now has 12 million users, American tech journalists will be shocked by it when it shows up in the USA. My guess is that most of them know nothing about India except what they see in old American movies. If he or she were ever to visit Mumbai, the average American tech journalist would be surprised that are no elephants or British soldiers in the streets.
The moral of the story is that Apple Pay Cash is a desperate attempt at catch-up, and Alphabet is positioned to win the payment wars. American tech journalists will learn that during holiday season 2018 when they visit Grandma and see her using TEZ at Walmart and ask what it is.
