Apple Eyes Local Partnerships To Launch Payments Service

Technology giant Apple Inc., may launch their very own payments service in India soon to boost their presence in the country. The company, which already has a manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, is reportedly eyeing a piece of India’s rapidly booming digital payments business.

Speaking at an event in Hyderabad, Apple Senior Vice President, Eddy Cue said, “Apple Pay is something that we definitely want in India. The challenge with payment mechanisms is that there isn’t really a lot of global scales. You deal with individual markets at a time… but India is one of those markets where we hope to bring Apple Pay.”

The Apple Pay service will not be built specifically for the country but will be integrated with established players like Paytm. Speaking about the payment service, Cue added, “ You have some great payment mechanisms today and we will leverage all of that in doing this. That’s one of the advantages that we have with Apple Pay. Apple Pay is not trying to come up with a brand new payment vehicle, so the fact that people like Paytm are doing well here is great. We just need to integrate with the popular ones and make the service available.” Apple Pay, according to Cue, will integrate multiple payment options to make the entire online payments process easy and safe.

The Senior Vice President, for Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue has been on a whirlwind tour of India and has also hosted a bunch of Bollywood stars during his visit. He also announced two new Mac Labs which will be launched in Chennai and Mumbai to help identify and unearth talented musicians in the country. Apple will also be working with AR Rahman on KM Music conservatory with kids. Eddy Cue also added, Apple, which has been criticized for the late launch of their devices in India, would now work to build new unique products or enhance existing products in the country itself.

Apple first announced their proposal to start a manufacturing operation in Bengaluru in February this year. Since then, they have already started the initial production process of the iPhone SE model which is also expected to be shipped soon to the local customers.