Apple Pay Coming To Europe ‘By The End Of The Year’

WIRED UK: Tim Cook has told an employee at Apple Store Kurfürstendamm in Berlin that Apple Pay will be in Europe by the end of the year, and that he wears his Apple Watch in the shower, according to a report in French by Igen.fr.

Despite Visa recently announcing that its European payment terminals would be compatible with Apple’s technology by mid-April, and the Telegraph  reporting that UK banks were in talks with the technology giant, it appears Apple is in no hurry to roll out the functionality. We’ve contacted Apple to verify the quote, but the company had not responded at the time of writing.

Talks have allegedly stumbled over the amount of personal and financial information Apple wants to collect about its customers. Executives are supposedly concerned that Apple Pay and the data that it gathers could serve as a way for Apple to invade the industry in a more major way. However, no bank wants to miss out on a payment revolution that might convince customers to finally start paying with mobile phones.

If all that financial chat was a bit much for you, picture Tim Cook in the shower. Is he wearing an Apple Watch? If not, adjust your mental image because he also apparently told the unnamed employee at the Berlin store that that’s how he rolls when getting clean every morning. Apple hasn’t previously discussed the water resistance of its smartwatch — a not-unimportant detail for a device that’ll be exposed to the elements.

Cook also supposedly promised to do more with accessibility features, addressed some concerns over working conditions in China, and said that he’d consider an employee request to be able to show the Apple Watch more easily to customers at launch, rather than keeping it locked up under glass.

For the full details (in French), head on over to iGen.fr.