One month ago today, Apple released Apple Pay – a slick, plastic-free way to pay using the latest iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. In that month people have been raving about the ease of this new platform, using it to buy everything form felafels to booze, a recent article in MarketWatch reported.

Those who use it are singing the praises of this new platform, with some calling it “wonderful” and exclaiming, “it’s magic!” on Facebook. The hashtag #ApplePay has been getting positive use on Twitter as well, with tweets like:

“Just used #ApplePay for the first time. It was awesome.”- William O’Steen

And, “Used #ApplePay this morning at @McDonalds to get my coffee. Too smooth and seamless. @apple nailed it.” – Habib Nasibdar

So what does Apple Pay look like in Fargo?

An employee at Fargo’s downtown Subway, one of the 34 companies currently accepting Apple Pay, said she has not seen too many people using this method to pay because most people do not have the iPhone 6 yet- a fault that some say is the major hurdle Apply Pay will have to jump in order to become mainstream.

She did say that in upcoming months she expects to see more people with iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and with that an increased use of Apple Pay.

“When people use it it looks super cool,” she said. “It makes me wish I had a phone that could use it!”

Thumbs Up from Fargo Startups

We reached out to Fargo’s startup community to see how they were incorporating Apple Pay as well. What we found is that, although most of Fargo’s startups offer online services and are thus unable to utilize Apple Pay, the response to this new payment service is positive with hope for future use.

“I love Apple Pay and cannot wait to get a phone that will work with it,” said Kirk Anton, from Heat Transfer Warehouse, which offers textile decorations online.

Josh Christy, founder of Codelation, said although they do not use it now, he can foresee an opportunity to use Apple Pay with an app they are currently working on called Booth.

“We do see the opportunity to leverage within our product Booth once the iOS app has launched,” Christy said. “I personally see [Apple Pay] as a very low friction way to accept payments as people trust the Apple brand.”

Jake Joraanstad, co-founder of Myriad Mobile, said that Apple Pay is being used for personal use only as of now, but that the company will be developing products around it in the future.

Other larger-scale companies in Fargo that are accepting Apple Pay are McDonald’s, Panera, Toys R Us, Foot Locker, PetCo, Walgreens, American Eagle, Aeropostale, Macy’s, Foot Locker, Office Depot, and Radio Shack – with more coming this year.

The Mobile Payment War

One may be wondering why big names like Wal-Mart and Target (both popular Fargo shopping spots) don’t appear on the list of companies accepting Apple Pay. This is because both of these major corporations are currently testing out another version of mobile payment recently unveiled by the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) called CurrentC.

(Get it…”currency”…)

CurrentC, developed in part by Wal-Mart, is based on Quick Response (QR) code as opposed to Apple Pay and Google Wallet, which are based on near-field communication (NFC). While both are more efficient than paying with a credit card, CurrentC has been getting a lot of flack over the Internet and was declared the loser of the mobile payments war in a recent Forbes’ article – mainly because the NFC tech is far more convenient and customer-based than QR code.

“QR-code based apps, or even the addition of yet another mobile app, simply isn’t innovative enough, nor does it solve for any customer pain points,” the article states. “Instead, CurrentC caters to retailers whereas NFC actively protects customers’ data rights.”

Regardless of winners or losers in this “mobile payment war,” it is clear that plastic credit cards stuffed in a wallet will soon be a thing of the past.

“Smartphones of today are capable of being used as online wallets,” said Saurabh Tyagi, founder of Fargo-based startup Medytex. “I think it’s about time that we stop using paper and plastic currency.”

Whats do you think, Fargo? Share your comments below!

 Image credit: iDownloadblog, Marisa Jackels, MCX