A customer purchases the newly released iPhone 6 in a mobile phone shop in Moscow September 26, 2014. Official sales of Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus started at midnight on Friday across major cities in Russia, according to local media.
A customer purchases the newly released iPhone 6 in a mobile phone shop in Moscow September 26, 2014. Official sales of Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus started at midnight on Friday across major cities in Russia, according to local media. Reuters/Maxim Shemetov

The new Apple Pay system will launch in at least 18 retail outlets on Saturday, said a leaked memo from Walgreens and posted by MacRumors.

The technology, available in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, allows device owners to purchase items by tapping "Pay with Apple Pay," the placing the finger on the fingerprint scanner which is then held up to the cash register. The charge goes to the credit and debit card of the phone owner, eliminating the need for PINs or signatures and reducing opportunities for card fraud.

The list of retailers initially participating in the scheme are BabiesRUs, Bloomingdales, Disney Store, Duanereade, Macy's, MacDonald's, Nike, Tanera, Petco, Sephora, Staples, Subway, ToysRUS, Unleashed and Walgreens.

Excluded are Walmart, Target. Best Buy and Pizza Hut.

Apple Pay uses short-range radio waves from a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip inside the iPhone 6 which sends the payment information.

The Cupertino-based tech giant is actually catching up with other smartphones since other devices running on Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry OS have been utilising the NFC technology by working with Google Wallet, Softcard and other service providers About 220,000 retail stores across the US have the NFC systems on their registers.

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