A leaked internal memo to employees of drugstore chain Walgreens suggests Apple’s new Apple Pay electronic payments service will go live on Saturday, October 18.
A Saturday launch is unusual, but it could make sense as Apple Pay is designed for in-store shopping and a weekend debut would give customers time to try the service. It is, however, also possible that Apple Pay will go live shortly before the October 18 date, following the company’s Thursday, October 16 iPad event, with support coming to Walgreens a day or two later.
Apple is expected to debut a new iPad, Retina display iMacs, and possibly a new Retina iPad mini at their event on Thursday.
Walgreens is one of a number of Apple Pay launch partners, which also includes McDonalds, Macy’s, Staples, and others.
Apple Pay is expected to be enabled on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus via an update to iOS 8. iOS 8.1 had been seeded to developers in two betas so far. If Apple Pay is indeed set to launch on the 18th, iOS 8.1 would need to launch sometime this week.
