Apple Pay has been available for about three weeks now, and adoption is rising among both retailers and consumers. While the list of retailers currently accepting Apple Pay is well known by most in the tech world, so are those who will not accept it. A significant number or prominent retailers, many of which will play a major role in the upcoming holiday shopping season, are not going to accept Apple Pay and implement the necessary technology because they are waiting for their own system, one that won't be out until next year.

You may have heard of the Merchant Consumer Exchange (MCX), but if not, it's an organization started by Walmart that contains a few popular retailers including Sears, CVS and Best Buy. The group got together years ago with the mission of making payments mobile. They began working on CurrentC, a mobile payments service that will allow customers to pay with their phones. CurrentC is still in development and isn't ready to be released until next year. Meanwhile, Apple Pay beat CurrentC to market, and it has been considered a success thus far. But since MCX retailers are committed to CurrentC, they will not accept Apple Pay at their stores.

A number of people, from Apple fans to tech journalists, are not happy with this decision. And if Apple Pay matures and grows in popularity before CurrentC becomes available (which is already coming to fruition) how will CurrentC merchants attract customers when their system is released? It's going to be an interesting couple of months. Throw in the holiday shopping season and the situation becomes even more complex. As a merchant, it's important to stay on top of the news and work with a merchant service provider to ensure you are in the best position to manage your customers regardless of where the market goes.