WSJ: Apple is annoying some iPhone owners by constantly pushing Apple Pay on them

If you're an Apple iPhone user, you might have noticed the red circular badge on the Settings icon seen on the home screen. Tapping on the icon reveals a message from Apple reminding you to provide one of your credit card numbers to use with mobile payment service Apple Pay. If you're not interested in the feature, you are doomed to see that red badge taunting and teasing you until you finally cave and set up Apple Pay. According to Research 451, 34% of new iPhone users link a card to Apple Pay during the setup process.

Apple is obviously in the midst of what some would term an "aggressive" campaign to push Apple Pay. The dot is so annoying to one Apple iPhone 6 user that he is thinking about trading in his phone for a Google Pixel. The company obviously feels that it is worth it to annoy iPhone users. After all, Apple receives .15% of the amount of a credit card transaction that is completed using Apple Pay. The tech giant receives a flat amount for each debit card transaction that uses the mobile payment feature.

Apple's services businesses generated $29 billion in revenue during its last fiscal year, and the company wants to raise it to $40 billion by fiscal 2020. If the increase in Apple Pay enrollment since last September's launch of iOS 11 is any indication, Apple is moving in the right direction. According to venture capital firm Loup Ventures, in the immediate aftermath of iOS 11's launch, 2 million users were signing up for Apple Pay each week. That was up sharply from the previous weekly figure of 750,000. The number of weekly additions to Apple Pay membership has since slipped a bit to 1.5 million.

It is a numbers game for Apple. If more iPhone users complete the Apple Pay setup process, there will be more transactions that use Apple Pay at the register. And as that occurs, Apple's take will continue to grow. It is no coincidence that in the midst of this aggressive push by Apple to add more Apple Pay users, the company's latest commercials for the iPhone have featured its mobile payment service.

source: WSJ