CALIFORNIA: As many as 500 banks have signed up to support the Apple’s online payment system, Apple Pay, which is being launched on Monday with an intention to compete with eBay’s PayPal and other electronic payments service.
The tech giant’s CEO, Tim Cook, also confirmed that developers were beginning to design apps for its upcoming iWatch, which was introduced last month and intended to directly compete with Swatch’s own smart watch product. Its first entry into the rapidly expanding wearable computing arena will only be available from 2015 and will also be Apple’s first new device since the iPad in 2010.
The Swatch Touch will be the first smart watch product from the world’s largest watch maker in a sector that some analysts say could be worth $93 billion in the coming years. Monday’s launch of the electronic payment service will be followed Thursday by the introduction of faster, slimmer iPads with “Touch ID” fingerprint sensors, which the latest iPhones already feature.
