Rene Ritchie:

When iPhone first came out, it was cool but it wasn’t some abstract coolness that made people’s eyes light up. It was the specific coolness of pinch-to-zoom in Photos or Maps, or Cover Flow in iPod. Those were immediately, undeniably cool.

When Apple Watch first came out, I had trouble finding a similar demo. It didn’t help that Watch wasn’t a minimally delightful product in the same way as iPhone. Apple introduced it with a bevy of features which made isolating one as the go-to demo harder: Mickey may have made people smile but it didn’t make them want to immediately rush out and buy.

And:

But Apple Pay and Wallet? That’s the “Wow!” moment. That’s the demo I’d been looking for and the one that’s been right in front of me this whole time. It’s what my friends, who recently go Apple Watch, are messaging me all excited about. It’s what the guy at the coffee shop counter loved when I stepped up, tapped, paid, and was on my way while the person beside me was still counting out cash. It’s the magic.

And:

Apple has succeeded in making paying for things not just cool but fun as well. Paying for things. Fun. That’s something to show off.

My guess is we haven’t seen a lot of this yet because the U.S. has only just begun to adopt tap-to-pay technology. That’ll change, though. And as it does, I think we’ll see a lot more of those “wow” moments, and Apple will sell a lot more Watches.

I’ve long felt this way, almost since the first time I put an Apple Watch on my wrist. Paying for things with the Apple Watch is a killer feature, but a feature that is struggling for critical mass. Apple Pay continues to grow, but relatively slowly. Once Apple Pay is everywhere, ubiquitous, an Apple Watch will be as easy to sell as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.