It’s only been a few days since Apple CEO Tim Cook rocked the house in Cupertino, Calif., with the unveiling of the Apple Watch and Apple Pay, the wireless payment system that will be available with the iPhone 6. But already companies, developers and venture capitalists on the East Coast are scrambling to find ways to work with the new devices, which promise to attract a constellation of new business applications.

“These are exciting moments for us: new platforms draw really curious engineers,” said David Pakman, a partner in the Manhattan office of venture capital firm Venrock, who tweeted an invitation Sept. 9 for people to “reach out” if they were working on apps for the Apple Watch. He got “a few really interesting ideas” in reply.

Much the way mobile phones spurred development of messaging applications, new communications methods could be uniquely suited to a watch that will be “like an electronic representation of your identity,” he said.

Mr. Pakman added that the “New York media ecosystem has been really good at adapting” to smaller screens, as usage of mobile devices has overtaken that of desktop computers. Now the question will be how to “optimize for a super-small screen,” he said. “I think New York will be a thought leader in that.”

The introduction of Apple Pay is also posing opportunities and challenges. The system, which will launch in October at 220,000 locations—primarily big-box retailers and restaurant chains—uses near-field communication technology to allow payment transactions from the phone’s digital wallet.

For smaller merchants the first job will be installing NFC readers at their cash registers and connecting them to their systems.

“We’re going to be working very hard to make sure we can support our merchants in accepting Apple Pay payments the same way the big-box retailers are going to be able to do it,” said Jason Richelson, CEO of Shopkeep.com, a Manhattan-based startup that provides point-of-sale software solutions to 10,000 independent merchants around the country.

Mr. Richelson said the company is looking for the right hardware device to offer its customers and making sure the back end of Shopkeep’s system can handle the transactions. He also sees an Apple Pay solution as a chance to attract more users.

“Potential customers are already asking about this,” he said. “This is a good thing for us.”

Alissa McCue

Alissa McCue

Alissa McCue has over 10 years of marketing and public relations experience working for top brands in retail and technology. As Senior Manager of Public Relations at ShopKeep, a leading iPad Point of Sale System, Alissa is focused on highlighting ShopKeep's major achievements and thought leadership in the POS and technology space for independent businesses.