By the end of 2015, Starbucks will be pilot testing Apple Pay in some of its stores in preparation for the roll out of the payment system in 7,500 outlets in 2016.
Besides Starbucks, Apple Pay will also be available in KFC restaurants and Chili's next year, discloses Apple Pay Vice President Jennifer Bailey at the Code Mobile conference on Thursday, reports CNET. She noticed a change in the momentum of acceptance at merchant level of Apple Pay in the last 12 months.
At that time, there were 500 financial institution partners and 200,000 U.S. merchant locations which started to use Apple Pay. By mid-2015, over 2,500 banks agreed to support Apple Pay and more than 1 million locations accepted the system.
When the Cupertino-based tech giant introduced the mobile payment system in 2014, less than 72 hours after its debut, 1 million credit cards were used on Apple Pay system which uses near-field communication technology found on the Apple Watch or newer iPhone models and devices with Touch-ID such as the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3.
Users of these devices could also consolidate loyalty and rewards cards, following Apple's release of the iOS 9 update in September. Bailey adds that there would be additions to Apple Pay's loyalty program, including Walgreens, Kohl's, Coca Cola, Whole Foods and Panera Bread, reports Apple Insider.
By the end of 2015, Apple Pay aims to increase the locations by half a million more. Although at the start of the year, Apple estimated over two-thirds of all contactless payments were made on Apple Pay, rival Samsung rolled out Samsung Pay in the U.S. in late September as likely ate into Apple's share.
Users of the devices made by the South Korean tech giant such as Galaxy phones and the upcoming Gear S2 smartwatch could pay even older retail terminals that do not accept Apple Pay because of Samsung's purchase in February of LoopPay.