One of the throwaway comments from yesterday afternoon’s Apple earnings call (link to recording) was actually big news: Apple Pay will expand to Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates by year’s end, meaning that the service will be available in 20 countries.
Apple CFO Luca Maestri made the comment during the conference call but didn’t offer rollout dates for Apple Pay availability. However, he did note that all of the countries should have the payments service up and running by the end of the calendar year.
Back in February, Apple watchers believed that a rollout of Apple Pay in Germany was a done deal, as support documents included a full translation of the “About Apple Pay” info in German and German-language how-to graphics. However, reports from various sources claim that German banks aren’t excited about paying Apple transaction fees and are pushing back on the service.
When iOS 11 arrives in about a month, Apple Pay adds person-to-person payments to its bag of tricks. Using a debit card, users can send money to each other for free while credit card users will be charged a 3 percent fee.
