Merchants that support Apple Pay include McDonald's, Whole Foods, Walgreens, and more. But even then, Apple Pay won't be able to gain popularity overnight.

Many retailers, including Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, are not yet part of Apple's Apple Pay network. In addition, only a small percentage of devices have the ability to read the NFC radio signals that make Apple Pay work. Currently, only Apple's latest iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus support the technology.

Apple has signed agreements with six major credit card issuers, which account for about 83 percent of total credit card transactions, and expects to form partnerships with 500 financial institutions early next year. At present, Apple has established partnerships with all three major credit card issuers: Visa, MasterCard and American Express.

Apple Pay is currently the tech industry's most ambitious effort to make smartphones a safer and more convenient alternative to cash, checks and plastic credit cards.

Admittedly, Apple Pay does not currently accept corporate credit cards or prepaid cards. In addition, Apple Pay also does not accept retailers' proprietary credit cards, which means that consumers will not be able to use their Macy's or Bloomingdale credit cards. This means that consumers may miss out on discounts associated with these dedicated credit cards.

Jim Sluzeski, a spokesman for Macy's, said he expects Macy's exclusive credit card to join the Apple Pay network in the future. The spokesperson said nearly half of Macy's sales come from credit card business related to the user's loyalty program.

Richard Crone, founder of payments consultancy Crone Consulting, expects merchants to earn about 4% of each transaction fee through proprietary credit cards. "The credit card exclusive to large department stores will be one of the vulnerabilities of Apple Pay," he said. ”

Over time, Apple expects to gradually address these issues. Many merchants plan to upgrade their payment terminals next year to access chip-embedded credit cards to avoid legal liability under the new anti-fraud law. It is believed that more new terminals will support NFC technology.

Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of internet software and services, said, "I think what we're trying to do is going to be a game changer, but it's also going to require a lot of people to be involved." While much has been done, there is still a lot of work to be done. ”

Apple Pay requires the consumer to sign up for a credit card – either to take a photo of the card or to a credit card that has already been authorized with iTunes. The consumer is then able to complete the payment by placing their finger on Touch ID.

Apple Pay enables in-app payments on the latest iPads, but iPads can't make purchases in stores yet. When Apple launches its smartphone next year, it is expected that the product will come with a near-field communication chip, which will help further increase the user base of Apple Pay.

After the hacking of user profiles at retailers such as Target and Home Depot, an important selling point of Apple Pay was its security performance. Every time a user makes a transaction, Apple Pay is encrypted with a proprietary code. This security feature protects consumers' personal information from being compromised.

Banks will pay Apple a small commission for each transaction, but consumers and merchants who use Apple Pay will not pay additional commissions. Gene Munster, an analyst at investment bank Piper Jaffray, expects Apple Pay to generate $118 million in revenue in 2015 and $310 million in 2016. However, compared to Apple's expected revenue of $180 billion this fiscal year, this part of the revenue is insignificant. However, the launch of Apple Pay will be able to boost consumer demand for Apple devices.

Ediku previously said he expects a significant portion of Apple Pay's initial transactions to be in-app payments. As of now, in-app payments require consumers to create an account, and the launch of Pay will simplify the process for consumers to purchase goods within the app.

Some large retailers, including Best Buy and Walmart, are currently supporting Merchant Customer Exchange, a retailer-driven mobile technology organization that can also be applied to iPhones and Android phones. However, the service is still in beta and will not be rolled out nationwide until next year.

In an investor note earlier this month, Morgan Stanley analysts noted, "We believe Apple Pay will accelerate the adoption of mobile payments, but it will take some time for it to become widespread." (Mowgli)