Cashless society? Apple boss Tim Cook wants to see the end of money before he dies

Apple boss Tim Cook has said that he hopes to see the elimination of cash within his lifetime.

He was speaking at the shareholder meeting of the world’s biggest tech company in California on Tuesday evening.

But, he revealed that Apple Pay, its efforts to get people to ditch cash for digital, had not taken off in quite the way he had thought it would.

Read more: Dream on, the UK is not going to be a cashless society any time soon

“Mobile payments have taken off slower than I personally would have thought if I were sitting here a few years ago,” said the 57-year-old boss.

Apple also added a new feature with a recent iOS update that lets iPhone users send cash to each other via iMessage.

The tech firm has never revealed the exact number of users Apple Pay has or how much revenue it brings in.

Cook also said in the Q&A with shareholders that its wearables division which includes Apple Watch and AirPod headphones, was approaching the size of a Fortune 300 company. Last year he said it was the size of a Fortune 500 firm.

Read more: Apple and Google Pay popularity set to grow in 2018

Apple is also planning on making more acquisitions this year, Cook said. In 2017 Apple snapped up 19, including British tech startup Shazam.

And he also poured cold water on the idea of any special dividend for investors, sating he was “not a fan”.

“I don’t think it helps the company and probably doesn’t help long shareholders either. Annual increases in the dividend [are] something that this board and this management team is committed to doing,” he said.