In the month since announcing the Apple Pay service, Apple Inc. has attracted 500 new banking partners. The rumor mill expected the launch to happen on October 18, but yesterday Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple Pay will in fact launch on Monday, October 20. At yesterday’s event, Cook said “It’s easy, it’s secure and yes, it’s a private way to pay for things. We think that it is going to be profound.”

Due to Apple’s partnerships with Visa, Mastercard and American Express as well as other issuing banks, iPhone users will be able to store their credit card account details in the app. iPone 6 and Apple Watch users will be able to pay using Apple Pay in more than 220 000 stores, with more stores and apps to be added.

In-store purchases will be limited to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones due to the requirement of the device and terminal needing near-field communication (NFC) chips; however, users can make use of Apple’s TouchID to pay for items in apps.

It’s no surprise that Apple has seen huge earning potential in the mobile payments market. Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner said “We expect global mobile transaction volume and value to average 35 percent annual growth between 2012 and 2017, and we are forecasting a market worth $721 billion with more than 450 million users by 2017.”