The Next Web:
Join me in giving a round of applause to the product that killed the Apple fan in me: the Apple Card!
First off, yeah, I know how businesses work. They exist to make money. Apple hasn’t been making its hardware for the sheer joy of it, it’s done solely for profit. And that’s fine. It’s more that the Apple Card is counter to the business‘ trajectory.
Its products put people at the centre, so they can control of their own world. Hell, even Apple Pay was built with this approach, as it allowed users access to their pre-existing bank accounts in a way they wanted.
Apple releasing its own credit card is not in that spirit one bit. It’s not a supportive mentality, it’s an exploitative one.
While I disagree completely with the reasoning, it’s still interesting to see what anti-Apple Card people might say and think. And, to be clear, I wouldn’t get an Apple Card even if it was offered here in Canada. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think it has value for others.
Seems like a personal problem to me…
I’m not sure why this person is unable to view things with any level of nuance. “Apple hasn’t been making its hardware for the sheer joy of it, it’s done solely for profit.” You don’t think anyone at Apple has any passion or interest in their work beyond their paycheck?
>> First off, yeah, I know how businesses work.
>> They exist to make money. Apple hasn’t
>> been making its hardware for the sheer joy of it,
>> it’s done solely for profit.
Ummm, I worked there. While I suppose this is technically true – the company has to make money to stay in business – many people do make things just to make things. You know, job satisfaction and all that…
Not worth linking to.
This is, as others have pointed out more politely, an idiotic article. It’s not an interesting contrarian take – it’s just stupid on many levels.
Having just wasted another hour of my life with a card-issuing bank, getting yet another card because my card number was stolen due to the carelessness or perfidy of an online merchant, the attraction of Apple Pay, and its offspring the Apple Card is obvious to anyone with a higher-than-room-temp IQ. Apple Card’s one-and-done number is EXACTLY Apple’s approach to customer-centric service. It protects the customer’s identity and is vastly more secure than any other credit card. I’m not a fan of Goldman, but oh well.
Apple Card is hardly impressive when you ignore the on-phone tracking and management features, which this author did. Those are the features that impressed me and anyone I’ve talked to about the card, so yeah, otherwise it’s just a card, but it doesn’t make sense to evaluate a new product without considering the part that’s new. That’s like ignoring Face ID in an iPhone X review.
Also, those features encourage users to plan out their purchases, pay on time, and avoid debt. Citibank saw that as unprofitable. No analyst considers this card to be a money maker when they look at those features, but again, this author did not acknowledge those features.
I looked over some previous articles. He’s just a professional crybaby, the sort of person we should give less attention to until they learn to be useful.
I looked over some previous articles. He’s just a professional crybaby, the sort of person we should give less attention to until they learn to be useful.
Uh… doesn’t the Card do precisely what this person wants and ‘put people at the center’ with all of the expense classification and other controls? Perk-style benefits aside, it seems to me that this is precisely a new take on helping people manage their financial lives, at least the credit card portion.
In any event, that person can’t be much of a fan if their criterion is “be perfect or I’m out”.
Apple Card seems very Apple-y to me. Yea, it has an interest rate, but unless Apple becomes a bank, I’m pretty sure Goldman Sachs isn’t just going to loan money for free. Credit cards seem like an industry thats just ripe for further disruption.
But what do I know, I’m not some whiney, entitled, tech journalist.
Also… there are precious few ways to get discounts on Apple products. There’s no annual fee, and if you’re able to pay off the balance each month to avoid interest, tell me a better way to get 3% off Apple purchases.
It slays me that the so-called discerning Apple Customer cannot see the purpose of the Apple Card. A pivot to “services” indicates the need to participate in the ultimate “services”, financial services.
Large consumer products companies have don’t
this in the past, so there’s no innovation here.
Sears launched Discover, and the Discover financial network, promising innovation in the financial services industry. What it really was was Sears trying to make money on made money.
They eventually had to detach this behemoth from their holdings, after the weight of a “sure thing” limited their ability to finance their own debt.
It stated the death spiral for Sears, the first Amazon of the American economy.
Apple isn’t “pivoting” to services. pivot means shift to. Apple is augmenting hardware revenue with services. different thing, different word.
these whiners are ridiculous. do they complain about Target for having a card? Disney? etc..
Apple Card does not offer any value. It’s just another me too. No way would I ever ditch my Costco Visa. It is my primary card that I use each and every day. Besides, I love getting my $3000 cash back check in the mail. Kaching!