Two major US retailers — Best Buy and Walmart — have announced that they will not support Apple Pay, according to the Wall Street Journal. The companies are instead said to be backing a payment service operated by Merchant Customer Exchange. The MCX technology requires only an app download, and is platform-agnostic, supporting older iPhones as well as Android devices. Apple Pay will be restricted to the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, and Apple Watch.
Apple has already lined up a number of retail partners, such as Macy’s, Walgreens, Staples, and Subway. It needs as many as possible, though, to make Apple Pay successful. Pando Daily notes that the company may have timed the launch of its service to take advantage of regulatory changes which will force a number of US retailers to upgrade their point-of-sale terminals anyway.
By October 2015, companies that don’t support EMV credit cards — which have embedded authentication circuitry — will be liable for the fraudulent use of lost, stolen, or fake cards. It may make sense, then, for retailers to simply upgrade to NFC-equipped terminals compatible with Apple Pay and/or other mobile payment platforms, like Softcard and Google Wallet.
