Apple Pay

It launched in the US in October 2014 alongside the iPhone 6. Contactless payment over NFC was nothing new, but Apple fixed what had sunk earlier attempts: the card number never lives on the phone. Instead the card network issues a network token, which Apple calls the Device Account Number, and stores it in the phone's secure element. Every purchase is signed with a one-time cryptogram and approved with Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode, so the shop's terminal never sees the real card number.

For years the iPhone's NFC chip was off-limits to anyone but Apple Pay. That was what the European Commission investigated, and in July 2024 it made Apple's commitments binding: rival wallets in the EEA get access to the chip. In the US, banks also pay Apple a fee on every purchase, a detail the adverts tend to skip.