Apple Pay is now the most popular in-store mobile payments system in the United States. A new report claim Apple’s mobile payments system has taken the top spot away from the Starbucks mobile app.
eMarketer says Apple Pay snagged the top spot last year, when 27.7 million Americans used the app to pay for a purchase. Apple Pay has grown even more since then.
In 2019, Apple Pay users should total 30.3 million, or 47.3% of mobile payment users. In comparison, Starbucks counts 25.2 million in its app’s camp, accounting for 39.4% of mobile payment users.
“Apple Pay has benefited from the spread of new point-of-sale (POS) systems that work with the NFC signals Apple Pay runs on,” said eMarketer principal analyst Yory Wurmser. “The same trend should also help Google Pay and Samsung Pay, but they will continue to split the Android market.”
The analysis, using data from Digital Trends, predicts Apple Pay will be available in 70% of U.S. retailers by the end of this year. While Starbucks has held a 40% of the mobile payments market over the last years, its growth potential is more limited than a general payment system like Apple Pay, as it is only available for use in Starbucks stores.
Nearly 64 million folks are expected to use mobile payments this year, accounting for 30% of all U.S. smartphone users. That’s a 9.1% year-over-year increase over 2018. Growth of mobile payments usage is expected to be strongest in the 25 to 34 year old age group, which is 50% of all smartphone users.
Total spending via contactless mobile payments systems will near $100 billion this year in the U.S., says the eMarketer report. The average user spends $1,545 per year via contactless payments, a 24% increase over 2018.
Things look good for Apple Card in all this, as eMarketer forecasting analyst Vincent Yip says that while “a growing number of millennials feel secure using payment apps, virtually all still find credit and debit cards equally convenient.”
