If a rising tide lifts all ships, Apple has done a favor to the struggling NFC m-payments business. The launch of Apple Pay is sparking US consumer interest in smartphone payments in general, according to new figures, and the use of Google Wallet has doubled since the iPhone 6 announcement. Tim Cook said recently that one million cards had been activated for Apple Pay – hardly a shopping revolution, but a healthier start than Google Wallet enjoyed in 2011. According to reports in ArsTechnica, Google Wallet transactions have risen by 50%, and the number of new users has doubled, since September in the US – where the biggest NFC battles are taking place, and which will provide templates for other…