Apple Pay’s rollout has been kind of slow, where given the number of countries Apple operates in and has products in, the number of countries that do support Apple Pay seem like a drop in the ocean. However Apple has been expanding its availability and during its recent earnings call, confirmed that Apple Pay will be expanding to three new countries.
This includes Norway, Poland, and Ukraine. This was previously speculated but now it looks like it is true, but when exactly they will be launched remains to be seen but according to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, this is expected to take place over the next few months, so for iOS users living in those countries, this could be something to look forward to.
It isn’t surprising that Apple Pay is slow to rollout. This is because of the fact that it is a financial service which means that its use and operations are probably scrutinized a lot more. There are also various merchants and financial institutions that Apple will need to negotiate with in order to have the feature supported.
A good example would be in Australia where Apple did announce Apple Pay, but some of the country’s banks have been resisting adopting the system, where at one point they even tried to band together to collectively boycott it.