After using Apple Pay for 24 hours now, I can honestly say its a fantastic, elegantly designed mobile wallet for the point of sale. In-app purchases are a different story.

My guess: this will certainly drive mobile wallets to be the de facto payment system in a short amount of time (about two years from now).

The setup was pretty simple. While my TD Bank debit card didn’t work, my American Express card did. The image scanning was pretty fast, but didn’t read the CVV number. My guess is that inputting the CVV number (Apple calls it a security code) is an authorization feature that the financial institutions required.

Here are the only partners that will work with Apple Pay right off the bat. pic.twitter.com/YXhkDI9vVK

— Ian Kar (@iankar_) October 20, 2014

Retail purchases work smoothly. They take about two seconds, on average (I used a stopwatch). This is actually quite fast, and is quicker than using a plastic card (especially an EMV card).

In-app purchases are kind of a disaster, though. They weren’t hard to find — Apple put an Apple Pay category right on the main screen of the App Store yesterday.  Sources told Bank Innovation that “several” of the apps were being processed by First Data, and the rest are unknown. I gave using Uber a shot, which was super confusing — it took a flat fee of $3.00, then when the ride was done I got a push notification about the full cost (which can get spammy). I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually. For some reason that is beyond me, apps are being extremely protective of which services they use to process Apple Pay payments. If anyone knows why, please let us know.

People that work at the retailers I’ve been using Apple Pay with are usually floored when they see it in action, even in the less-techy New York City. It actually might be a little more impressive in NYC than San Francisco, since smaller merchants don’t really bother to add new payment technology here.

The most common question I’ve been getting is “Is it safe?” and “How does it work?” The answers: Yes, a token (or a dynamic personal account number as Apple refers to it) is passed, not your actual credit card number. And while it is complex, Bank Innovation has written about the intricacies of Apple Pay.

Overall, I’m pretty impressed with Apple’s mobile wallet and it surpassed my expectations, which were hovering slightly above lukewarm, to be quite honest. I was worried that Apple Pay would be more like Siri. Now, I think it’s the next iPad — an industry that Apple came into quite late, but will drive mainstream adoption in.