Nearly twelve years after Apple initially unveiled Apple Pay, the digital payment service is now becoming available in India, one of the few major markets still without access. Here’s what you need to know.
Apple Pay Expands into India
Earlier today, TechCrunch reported that Apple Pay would debut in India “later Tuesday with Axis Bank as its first banking partner.”
Now, as noted by Aaron Perris on X, Apple has started activating Apple Pay support for India on its backend systems, indicating the rollout has officially begun.
According to an Apple support page, there are currently 100 countries and regions supporting Apple Pay. India hasn’t yet appeared on that list, but Apple will likely update it soon.
India has rapidly emerged as a key strategic market for Apple, both in terms of manufacturing and consumer growth.
Along with expanding its retail footprint and repeatedly emphasizing robust growth in the country during quarterly earnings calls, Apple and its suppliers have been relocating more iPhone assembly to India as part of a wider push to diversify production beyond China.
That expansion hasn’t been smooth sailing. Apple is currently battling an antitrust case filed by India’s Competition Commission over its App Store policies, and the company has also declined to follow a government directive requiring smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a state-run application on new devices.
Apple’s manufacturing partner Tata Electronics has recently faced criticism after an Indian pollution regulator claimed that wastewater from one of its iPhone component factories contaminated groundwater and nearby farmland.
Tata was also recently targeted by a cyberattack that allegedly exposed confidential files from multiple companies, including Apple.
Despite these challenges, Apple’s introduction of Apple Pay in India marks another step in the company’s broader expansion in the country and arrives at a potentially advantageous moment for its Services segment.
During the most recent fiscal quarter, Apple experienced its first sequential decline in Services revenue since fiscal Q4 2022. While India alone is unlikely to significantly impact that metric, with iPhone sales hitting record highs in the nation, Apple Pay offers the company another avenue to sustain this upward trend.
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