Dave Smith, writing for Business Insider:

It’s no coincidence Jennifer Bailey was chosen to be the first woman to appear on stage at an Apple keynote. As the VP of Apple Pay, she’s in charge of Apple’s most important service, which aims to revolutionize how we pay for goods. And on Monday, Bailey explained how that service will continue to grow and improve.

First things first, I found that really surprising. In the entire history of Apple keynotes, not one woman has been on stage? Not one developer, not one marketing rep, not one product team member? Struggling to accept this as fact, but just the fact that I can’t easily come up with a specific counterexample does say something. [Pointed out by Twitter folks: Roz Ho from Microsoft is one counterexample. Surely there are more?]

But I digress.

Apple’s most important services are the ones that keep you in its ecosystem, and Apple Pay might be the ultimate example of that concept.

Exactly! As I’ve said many, many times, it’s all about the ecosystem. And Apple Pay is truly a linchpin here. This is a terrific read, really shows how much is happening in the Apple Pay universe.

UPDATE: Jeff LaMarche found this article, which adds Stephanie Morgan and Jen Herman to the list. With Roz Ho, that makes three, prior to this keynote. An amazingly small list. Tweet me @davemark if you know of anyone else.

UPDATE 2: I asked Heidi Roizen if she was ever on stage for a keynote (Heidi was Apple’s VP of World Wide Developer Relations from 1996 to 1997). Her response:

I was on stage at the 1996 WWDC announcing Apple’s $20 million app partner marketing campaign (that # seems so quaint now)

So that brings the number up to four. I am astonished that the number of woman on stage at Apple keynotes, prior to this one, numbers in the single digits. Incredible.