When Apple announced Apple Pay, it became a clear competitor with other mobile payment services, like Google Wallet and CurrentC, a poorly reviewed mobile payments service that was developed by a coalition of businesses, including Best Buy and CVS.
But now, after months of resistance, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced during the investor's call on Monday that Best Buy would be abandoing CurrentC and adopting Apple Pay. Best Buy quickly confirmed the claim on Twitter, tweeting out "#ApplePay now accepted in the @BestBuy app and is coming to stores later this year: https://corporate.bestbuy.com/?p=8984."
The resistance to Apple pay is partly because of how CurrentC's contract restricts the companies that use it from using other mobile payment services.
"Previous reports had indicated that Current-C retailers would not be able to accept payments from other mobile systems, but that policy was quickly clarified following public outcry, with the creators of the software saying that the exclusivity agreement would last for only "months, not years," reports 9to5Mac.
CurrentC was originally designed to act as an alternative to other credit card processing services and to Apple Pay. The service would eliminate credit card transaction costs, and would use QR Codes to transfer money instead of the built-in NFC chips.
The problem with the CurrentC system, as John Gruber points out, is that it's based more around solving the retailers' credit card fee problems than the consumers' payment friction problems.
"Users have to open their phones, open CurrentC, open the scanner, scan the code from the cashier and wait for the transaction to be confirmed. That may present more friction than simply paying with a credit card, and it's certainly harder than a quick Touch ID verification and tap of Apple Pay," reports TechCrunch.
Users can download the latest version of the Best Buy App to get Apple Pay access inside of the app.
