Speaking at the first WSJD Live conference by The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that there have already been over one million card activations through the Apple Pay mobile payments system over the first 72 hours of the service.
Mastercard and Visa have reported that there are more users of the Apple Pay system than every other mobile wallet service combined, including rival Google Wallet.
"The early ramp [of Apple Pay] looks fantastic," said Cook to The Wall Street Journal managing editor Gerry Baker in an interview.
At the conference, Cook did not reveal any specific numbers regarding the first few days of the Apple Pay service. However, Cook did compare Apple Pay to other mobile wallet systems in the market.
According to Cook, Apple thinks that all the other mobile payments systems that are out in the market are actually not simpler and easier to use than the traditional plastic cards that fill up the wallets of consumers.
Cook also said that Apple is not "Big Brother" in terms of gathering the personal information of Apple Pay's users, which is a humorous poke at the data-gathering practices of Google and other companies.
The security that Apple Pay provides to its users is one of the service's major selling points, as the platform is integrated with the Touch ID system of the newer iPhones. Combined with the processing power of the Apple A8 chip, Apple is confident that all the contactless purchase transactions made through Apple Pay are secure and safe for the consumers.
Apple has previously reported on the successful launch of Apple Pay, which has received overwhelmingly good and enthusiastic reviews. This is despite the decision of a few high-profile retail companies such as Walmart, CVS and Rite Aid to not support the Apple Pay system amid worries of security breaches in their stores and in the personal information of their customers.
Cook characterized the issue with the certain companies as a "skirmish," and that the resolution of the problem will be on the consumers.
The Apple Pay system, based on NFC technology, is currently supported in more than 220,000 retail locations all over the United States, and more companies are lined up to become partners for the service in the near future. The mobile payments service could also possibly launch in other countries as early as next year.
Apple Pay was launched as a feature of iOS 8.1, which enables the NFC module located in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The feature accesses credit card information that the user has stored within the smartphone, making payments through a single tap of the smartphone on the retailer's NFC terminal.
