Apple Pay: Manage Your Excitement

3. Retailer readiness: Now that NFC is built right into the iPhone, we can expect consumer adoption to grow. This means retailers must be prepared or risk losing sales. A big first step for retailers is to upgrade their payment terminals. It's a massive investment, especially for retailers working on razor-thin margins. However, a hardware refresh cycle already in play is working in Apple's favor; retailers are working toward an October 2015 deadline set by the payment card companies to enable chip-and-PIN payment acceptance vs. swipe and sign.