Apple Pay is set to launch in Germany during late 2018, months after rival service Google Pay made its debut in the heavily cash-reliant market.

The launch, announced during Apple’s fiscal Q3 earnings call (covering the period to end-June), will be the 25th market for Apple Pay and comes after Google launched its payment brand (formerly known as Android Pay) into Germany in June.

Despite World Population Review figures placing Germany as the second most populous nation in Europe by some margin, the country is the only one of the top eight not to have Apple Pay already available.

The reason for this could be the high cash-dependency in Germany, where banks have struggled to displace cash with card payments for small retail transactions.

Figures published by German central bank Deutsche Bundesbank earlier this year showed 74 per cent of transactions below €50 were made with cash during 2017, with the average adult carrying €107 in physical money.

Successes
On Apple’s earnings call CEO Tim Cook talked-up the success of Apple Pay as it continued to expand the number of transactions processed every quarter. During fiscal Q3 it processed 1 billion transactions, three-times the number recorded in the same period of 2017.

During the recent quarter Apple completed more transactions than point-of-sale terminal company Square and a greater number of mobile transactions than PayPal, he added.

Apple Pay Cash – its peer-to-peer service – served “millions” of customers in the first eight months since its delayed launch, Cook noted.

For a full breakdown of Apple’s results click here.