Apple unveiled many services today – TV channel dedicated to publishing cutting-edge content, subscription gaming, news and TV services. It also announced a credit card in partnership with Goldman Sachs and MasterCard. If you use Apple products and shop in the Apple ecosystem, there is no reason not to get the Apple credit card which offers up to 3% cashback.
Apple is partnering with Goldman Sachs to make its own credit card due out this summer — no plastic required. Apple Card will be available on all iOS devices in the Wallet app. It has a rewards system that adds 2% of any Apple Pay purchase amount directly back to the Apple wallet as cash. The deposits are made daily, and the reward goes up to 3% for purchases of Apple products and down to 1% for purchases made with the physical card.Every purchase needs a fingerprint or face-identification confirmation. For privacy reasons, Apple said it doesn’t track where payments are made or for how much. The budgeting features are done on device, and Apple said it will not sell user information to third-parties.An optional physical card is available, but in typical Apple fashion, it’s a laser-etched titanium rectangle. Apple likes to be minimalistic when it comes to design, so there is no expiration date, card number or security code on the card — only in the app. Cook said he believed the card would be “the most significant change in the credit card experience in 50 years.”
In this announcement, here is the real deal – ‘Even with the physical card: “The physical credit card will have no account number, no CCV, no expiration date and no signature. This is a nice touch that shows their commitment to privacy and I suspect it will become the industry standard.”’This is a superb friction-free experience that will challenge industry leaders.
I certainly believe that from tonight most fintech entrepreneurs will start thinking about their products as Apple is radically changing the industry with the format of this credit card. When a card does not have account number, CCV, expiration date and signature, it is purely evolutionary in the current scheme of finance.
The card has a PLASTIC which enables you to just use it as any other card in the world – Visa, Mastercard, Amex. So, it is not restricted to Apple world. The notion that without expiration date, CCV and card number written on a card makes it not usable outside Apple ecosystem is not correct. Apple can put those in the chip and keep all clean. But it will have APIs for startups that want to process payments online for Apple card users since there is no account number to enter. So this will change the current flow where users are expected to enter numbers, expiration date and CCV as they buy things online.
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- Apple has landed with Evolution 3.0, and just from unveiling alone Apple is already cornering and locking up substantial market share in that space. That of Apple Card could tempt one to ask, why hasn’t any firm thought of it this way before? Perception! Apple occasionally doesn’t do ordinary things, but rather it does the seemingly ordinary thing in an extraordinary manner. Of all the services unveiled, that of Card is likely to become the new world order, leading to rethinking and reimagining in several quarters. Again, Apple has demonstrated that it’s not your everyday corporations, that whenever it wants to change the basis of competition, it manages to make you think and feel differently. We wait to see how the amalgam of services would change its fortunes. Oprah Winfrey ‘finished’ it during the unveiling, “They are in a billion pockets”. That’s actually where Apple is starting from, suddenly it’s a hit!
- Yeah, Apple has proved again to be a category king in their line of business. I have always wondered why a company has not come up with a single card in Nigeria where you could link your Bank accounts and use different codes to access / call up say Bank A, Bank B etc instead of carrying 4 to 5 different ATM cards. This will be interesting to see in Nigeria. Whoever is able, can take up this challenge if you can, but remember me when it comes to fruition.
- Without CSV, expiration date, that card will be limited to the Apple eco system alone. If this is the case, how does this differ from a store card? I need to ship on Amazon or pay the extras of hotel bill, or the doctors bills. This is just additional plastic weight in our wallets and purse. Just an enhancement of the traditional store card with an apple logo print
- First the card exists as a digital and plastic version. Then the card can be used wherever Apple Pay is accepted. So the question is if you own a business, does apple compete well with the likes of visa, AmEx…? If it’s fees are lower, I will make sure I have it at my point of sale. You the customer of both me and apple will use the card at my business and apple will give you 3% back. Which is just one of the offerings. It’s also competing on interest rates. But it can do that as it has its ecosystem which other financial giants don’t have. It is expanding its “value per Apple ID”
- My Comment: If you click and read, the card has a PLASTIC which enables you to just use as any other card in the world – Visa, Mastercard, Amex. So, it is not restricted to Apple world. The notion that without expiration date, CCV and card number written on a card makes it not usable outside Apple ecosystem is not correct. Apple can put those in the chip and keep all clean. But it will have APIs for startups that want to process payments online for Apple card users since there is no account number to enter. That is my point of insight because that will change the current flow where users are expected to enter numbers, date etc.
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