Apple’s “Buy Now Pay Later” might come later than expected this year. In his latest newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said, “Among the nearly half-dozen (iOS 16) features listed as coming later, Apple Pay Later is the only one with no time frame. Every other delayed feature is listed as coming ‘later this year’.”

Apple Pay Later is a service that allows Apple Pay transactions to be split into four instalments over six weeks without any interest. The feature was announced as part of iOS 16 in June at Apple’s WWDC. Now, iOS 16 is here but Apple Pay Later is still a no-show and with no definite release date yet. Gurman believes that the earliest possible launch could be with iOS 16.4 update, in early 2023.

The uncertainty coming from Apple is a big surprise, given how all of their announcements, launch events and releases work like clockwork. Gurman even added that this could be due to “fairly significant technical and engineering challenges in rolling out the service, leading to the delays”.

These issues, whose nature is unknown, will require Apple to assume new financial obligations. According to reports from Bloomberg and CNBC published in June, Apple Financing LLC, a subsidiary of the corporation, will manage the loans for Apple Pay Later while remaining independent of Apple's core operations. For Apple Card, the company's Mastercard-based credit card, Apple presently works in partnership with Goldman Sachs to execute credit checks and lending; however, for Apple Pay Later, Apple will perform these services internally.

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