BloombergBusiness has reported that Apple has officially stated that that its mobile-payment service is now available in more than 2 million retail locations, with merchants such as Crate & Barrel, Chick-fil-A and Au Bon Pain rolling it out in stores. Online retailer Zappos.com added Apple Pay on its iPhone and iPad apps Tuesday as competition intensifies among mobile payment providers. Globally, mobile payments will increase to $620 billion in 2016 from $450 billion last year, according to a report from TrendForce. "We've been getting requests from customers to use Apple Pay for quite a while," said Aki Iida, head of mobile for Zappos. "It makes the customer experience easier, why not try it?"

In November we noted in a report that Cinnabon will be adding Apple Pay to all its U.S. locations in 2016 while KFC is coming before the summer. Tim Cook also noted during their financial conference call earlier this month that Apple will be bringing Apple Pay, "this amazingly convenient, private and secure mobile payment experience to China, Hong Kong, Spain and Singapore in the coming year.

TrendForce also noted in a recent report that "With major smartphone brands Apple and Samsung making a big entrance into the mobile payment business, the total revenue of the worldwide mobile payment market in 2015 reached US$450 billion, according to the global market research firm TrendForce. By the end of 2016, the total revenue is estimated to arrive at US$620 billion, representing a massive growth of 37.8% year on year.

Apple Pay and Samsung Pay especially have been scrambling to China, which makes up a huge slice of the mobile payment market. The rival service providers both struck a deal with the government-run Chinese bank-card payment processor China UnionPay earlier this year. Hence, Chinese iPhone and Samsung phone users will be able to make mobile payments this year, provided that their models are of the latest generation with upgraded software."

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 6pm PST and sporadically over the weekend.