Almost 75% of iPhone users have activated Apple Pay: Report

Yahoo Finance Live's Dave Briggs and Seana Smith look at how many iPhone users and consumers use payment apps for everyday purchases.

Video transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: All right, speaking of shopping, Apple's bet on Tap to Pay is finally paying off. It launched its Apple Pay service in 2014 with the idea of replacing your wallet with your iPhone. Now almost 75% of iPhones out there have activated Apple Pay. We asked our Yahoo Finance audience their preferred way to pay at the register, and this is what you told us. 67% still prefer to pay with the credit card, though 22%, a pretty solid number, are using that Tap to Pay.

And when you look at, Seana, how this number has increased over the years, we just gave the 75% number, but back in 2016, it was 10% and then 20% and then 50%. It is growing through the roof. And when you go back to the very beginning, 2014, they almost found a solution when there wasn't a problem because I remember most of us saying, I will never use my phone, instead of a credit card. We weren't complaining about the credit card yet. How many payments do you make on this thing? I would say at least a quarter of my payments are with my phone.

SEANA SMITH: Although I have to confess, I am a recent convert, so I was a little bit skeptical going in. You know what got me was the New York City subway. It's so much easier to pull up Apple Pay and scan it, rather than bringing out--

DAVE BRIGGS: It is a game changer.

SEANA SMITH: It's a game changer. You mentioned the extensive growth that we've seen in terms of consumers using Apple Pay, also among retailers just in terms of the number of retailers that now are accepting Apple Pay. The company says that 90% of retailers across the US now take Apple Pay, comparing that number to just about 3% that accepted contactless payments when the service was introduced.

So we certainly have seen this industry take off in recent years. More and more people are adapting to it. It was interesting when we threw up our poll because my question to those people who said credit cards, I wonder how many of them have actually tried Apple Pay because once you try it, once you realize how convenient it is, it is very hard to go back to paying with your credit card.

DAVE BRIGGS: It is downright impossible. And you mentioned New York City. Visa says this is the number one city for contactless pay. 45% of credit payments are contactless. That is a staggering number. It is the number one payment among all teens in the United States.

But when you look at the big picture for Apple, still less than 1% of their overall revenues-- just gives you a sense of the behemoth that Apple is. They're not relying on it yet because Apple iPhone sales are so strong. But you can't help wondering where this is evolving to, when Apple is most of your payments, when it is perhaps your bank. I don't know, but it seems like it's going to a place that will consume most of our [INAUDIBLE].

SEANA SMITH: Well, and it also makes you rely even more heavily on your iPhone. We know the iPhone is so important to everybody. If you're bringing it with you, which I normally do anyways, but to every single place you go, you always have it in your hand. That's good news here for Apple. And they are-- you're right. They're every-- them and Amazon. I don't think either of us could get through-- maybe an hour?

DAVE BRIGGS: The worst part about--

SEANA SMITH: [INAUDIBLE] products or one of their services.

DAVE BRIGGS: I'll tell you, as a parent-- your kids are too young-- it is terrifying, Apple Pay, though, because they don't have any sense of what $1 is or what $20 is. They really lose the concept of a buck because they just swipe a phone. So that is something we parents are going to have to teach our kids. Coming--