Apple Pay to make online shopping faster on web, Indian users may have to wait

From the very onset of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) there have been high anticipations as to what would be rolled out for Apple users around the world. At the conference, which is currently underway in San Francisco, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that there are now over 2 million apps in Apple’s app store that have been downloaded 130 billion times, earning $50 billion for developers. He

also announced the launch of Apple Pay on websites. Until now, iPhone users could load their credit card or debit card information into the system and then tap and pay with their phone in participating stores or people could also use Apple Pay to buy things in iPhone apps without having to type in all of their payment card and shipping info. With Apple Pay, shopping online is expected to be faster, safer and more private. Users can shop on the browser and pay for the purchases online. Credit cards, store credit cards and reward cards can be used with just a touch ID. Pressing their finger to the phone’s fingerprint sensor will authenticate the transaction on the computer.

Apple Pay will also be available inside the new iMessage Apps SDK, which means that developers can add the ability for users to purchase things from within an iMessage conversation. Apple Pay will launch in Switzerland, France, and Hong Kong this summer. Indian users will have to wait a little longer for the service.

In an attempt to battle other wallet services by bringing Apple pay to the web, it is introducing their payment method to an entire new segment of shoppers. Until now Apple pay was only available on apps. It is most likely that websites that currently use other mobile wallet services could now offer Apple Pay as an additional payment option for customers.

The major drawback to the service being that Apple Pay users have to own a Mac computer and an iPhone if they want to use the payment service on desktop websites. They also have to use Apple's Safari web browser.

Mac users will be able to pay online in Safari using a “Pay with Apple Pay” button, and authenticate their purchase using Touch ID on their phone or watch.

Keeping the encryption details in mind and protecting user data Apple said that the iOS 10 uses an on-device intelligence to identify the people, objects and scenes in photos and whenever a user shares sensitive data with Apple for services like Siri and Maps it is always encrypted and never used to build user profiles.

However, Indian users may have to wait to use these functions. According to media reports, Apple Pay is in the process to launch in India and they are in talks with a few banks. Reports state that Tim Cook hopes to bring every service available at Apple to India.

While it is still not clear as to when India would get Apple Pay, with rising competition within the already available players in the market like Oxigen and PayTM, a new entrant like Apple Play would only give more options to Apple users and Safari browser users.