Apple Pay via Touch ID, Face ID, PIN or passcode. The service lets Apple devices wirelessly communicate with point of sale systems by using a near field communication (NFC) antenna, a "dedicated chip that stores encrypted payment information" (known as the Secure Element), and Apple's Touch ID and Wallet. It is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Brazil, UAE, Russia, China, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, as well as various other European nations. Apple Pay supports most major credit cards or debit cards, including American Express, Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay etc. Supporting banks vary. The service
History of Apple Inc. lead to Apple having over a 10% market share until 1997 when Steve Jobs was re-hired as interim CEO to replace Gil Amelio. Jobs promptly found a loophole in the licensing contracts Apple had with the clone manufacturers and terminated the Macintosh OS licensing program, ending the Macintosh clone era. The result of this action was that Macintosh computer market share quickly fell from 10% to around 3%. In 1996, the struggling NeXT company beat out Be Inc.'s BeOS in its bid to sell its operating system to Apple. Apple purchased Steve Jobs' company, NeXT on December 10, 1996, and