The ability to conduct mobile payments is set to become a key theme in future marketing campaigns for the Apple iPhone, as international growth pushes transactions to new heights, according to research from US venture capital outfit Loup Ventures.
As the only digital wallet capable of supporting mobile, desktop, in-app, P2P, and POS transactions, Apple Pay is soaring ahead of its competitors in converting users to the mobile payment concept, believes Loup.
The VC points to new data points shared by Apple in its latest earnings call to back up its assumptions, including a rise in the number of bank partners to over 4,900 and the processing of over one billion cumulative transactions in the last quarter, a 3x increase in transactions year-on-year. Equally, adoption of Apple Pay continues to accelerate exponentially overseas, with 85% of the user base now in non-US markets.
States Loup Ventures: "Today, Apple often markets the iPhone around the camera and its filters, notably with the 'Shot on iPhone' campaign. In the future, we expect the digital wallet to be a marketable iPhone feature. Adoption of Apple Pay is growing, and we believe 31% of iPhone users have used Apple Pay in the past year, compared to 25% a year ago."
Across the market as a whole, the VC estimates that less than 20% of global smartphone users actually use their wallet as a phone, but this figure is set to streak as contactless payments become ubiquitous and users become more comfortable with the concept.
"Eventually, we believe that number (of smartphone users) will rise to above 80%," forecasts Loup.