Juniper Research Still Betting On Apple Pay

Will Apple be the apple of the consumer’s eye when it comes to contactless payments?

Cnet reports that the tech giant may just lap its peers in the contactless race, with Juniper Research estimating in data released Tuesday (April 11) that Apple Pay users will grow by significant numbers, almost doubling its measured year over year from 2016 to 2017.

The tally of Apple Pay users may top 86 million by the end of 2017, stated the firm, with Apple expected to — as Cnet put it — “dominate” the market through the next few years.

That doesn’t mean that rivals will lack for growth. As Juniper projects, the mobile payments realm as a whole will see growth, topping 100 million users through the first six months of 2017, growing to 150 million users globally by the end of the year.

The market share of the triumvirate of Apple, Google and Samsung hit 41 percent, all in, at the end of last year when measured as total contactless payment share. The market share should grow to more than half in the next four years to the year 2021, according to the research, once “the trio’s combined user base exceeds 500 million.”