Harbortouch Gets On The Menu: Will Third-Party Apps Fuel Hunger For Apple Pay?

With the Monday launch of Apple Pay many new third-party apps that use the new mobile payment platform are expected to start emerging. Among them is Harbortouch, which just released its new pay-at-the-table Perkwave app.

With the app, users can pay for orders at bars and restaurants directly from their phones. By scanning the bill onto the Perkwave app, users select the card they have pre-loaded on Apple Pay and then tap to pay the bill.

Related: 10 Biggest Blockbusters From Apple's Latest Product Release

"It is as simple as you can possibly ask for and it truly does exactly what Apple's vision is, which is making the consumer's experience better," Jared Isaacman, CEO of Harbortouch, told CRN. "You're not going to have to put your card down. You're not going to have to wait for the waiter or waitress to come and swipe your card and come back. And by the way, it also adds a whole boatload of mobile loyalty, mobile rewards functionality. In our minds, it's a cool topic, but really the primary goal is solving the pay-at-the-table problem, and that is exactly what Apple Pay has allowed us to do. We're really excited to show everyone."

Allentown, Pa.-based Harbortouch made the app available Monday for free download in the Apple Store. The company, a pre-release partner of Apple-Pay, has been in the point-of-sale business for the past 15 years and has made Perkwave usable at more than 10,000 restaurant branches.

Isaacman estimates Harbortouch will be processing more than a million Apple Pay transactions a month, which would be about 5 percent of the company's total transactions.

"Apple Pay should be something that we are all very excited about as consumers," Isaacman said. "It is going to make our lives easier and makes a lot of sense. It can certainly go a long way in replacing our wallets, and Harbortouch is a small contribution to that big-picture initiative, which is, we're going to allow you to do pay-at-the-table at a restaurant. We're going to make that experience much more convenient, faster, it's going to have a rewards loyalty program to it, and merchants are going to love it as well, because customers will be able to get in and out quicker and happier with a better experience."

Apple has partnered with Visa, MasterCard and American Express in addition to 11 major banks and more than 220,000 merchants. With third-party apps such as Perkwave embracing and pushing Apple Pay toward its consumers, partners say Apple Pay has the potential to broaden its reach.

"I've seen a lot to say that the ecosystem of Apple Pay is building momentum," said Michael Oh, CEO of Tech Superpowers, an Apple partner based in Boston. "In the last month, they’ve been able to build enough momentum of getting more big banks and cards. So much of the ecosystem is figured out. Now we need to see if it works as seamlessly and as easily as advertised."

PUBLISHED OCT. 20, 2014