Changes to its hardware and software were announced during the keynote. Improvements to its various operating systems and computers were part of the mix.
Apple Pay and the launch of a branded credit card have helped the company grow as a consumer finance company. It isn't considered a fintech company per se because it's earned a market footprint of sufficient scale.
It is possible that that is changing. Apple Pay Later will allow consumers to make four payments over six weeks at the millions of U.S. retailers that accept Apple Pay. Fees or other charges will not be included in the offering, the company said.
It should be familiar to you. Affirm is one of the companies riding the consumer credit option all the way to the public markets as a result of their use of the installments payment method. Block bought Afterpay and a merger between Sezzle and Zip were recently seen.
We have seen traditional digital wallets add the pay-in-installment feature, as well as the evolution of more full-featured digital wallets that include 'pay in one' in addition to installments. It is not surprising that Apple has added this feature. Bnpl has proven to be popular with consumers and merchants. It is a logical extension of their relationship with Apple users and it is likely to increase usage of Apple Pay.
“Banks, lenders and merchants need not view Apple Pay Later as a threat but rather as an opportunity to carve out their own niche in what has become the payments standard.” Jifiti CEO Yaacov Martin
Each chasing scale with modest model variations is at times focused on a particular vertical or other form of customer segment. Apple's entry into the market will affect all of these providers. When shares of Affirm sold off in the wake of Apple's news, we got an idea of what investors were thinking.
That is just one company. Afterpay and Affirm are outfits. Is Apple's news going to upset their carts? What should we think about the impact of Apple's news on the smaller, regional or niche-y players that have raised a lot of capital in the last few years? They wanted to know.
The sector has been under some pressure recently. After Affirm's share price came back to Earth following a period of investor fancy, Klarna was forced to change up its funding plans.
The company is still on defense. If you'd like to go deeper, you can read about the economics of the world here.
Affirm, Afterpay and Splitit were among the major vendors that were reached out to to get a better idea of how Apple will affect the market. Klarna didn't want to say anything.
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