Apple Pay won’t have the near term transformative effect on proximity payments that everyone seems to think.  It will get there eventually, as “chicken & egg” hardware compatibility issues work themselves out in 2015. In the meantime, in-app payments will be where Apple Pay shines.

As opposed to in-app payments for virtual goods like app upgrades, songs, ringtones, etc., I’m referring to in-app payments for services that are fulfilled offline. This is the emerging on demand local services (ODLS) space popularized by Uber and taking over several local verticals.

We held a session at ILM ’14 last week on ODLS that was a highlight of the show. We’ve also written extensively about it. Lastly, I gave a presentation to kick off the show which, summarized our view of payments and ODLS. A replica of that presentation’s slides and voiceover can be seen below.