Apple Card: The Object of Desire

The launch of the Apple Card has caused quite a stir – amongst the Apple loyalists and naysayers alike. The loyalists marvel at the ease of activation and digital issuance. The naysayers criticize it as not being “revolutionary” – that there is nothing new nor extraordinary about it. After all, Apple Card was not the first metal card in town; it was not the first to show where you have made a purchase, and how much you have spent. Some mocked Apple for even coming up with a card at all – seemingly forgetting that not merchant has the ability to accept Apple Pay.

But we also seemed to have forgotten how far we have come since the first iPhone. Nokia was the dominant mobile phone manufacturer at the time; and its ex-CEO, Jorma Ollila, predicted defiantly that the device, along with everything Apple, would be nothing but a niche. Twelve years later, 45 percent of the US market is dominated by the iPhone – with over 100 million users and counting. But what is impressive is not just the popularity of the device(s) itself; Apple has helped us reimagine mobility – and with that, it revolutionized the entire ecosystem as we know it.

Other handset manufacturers began to copy Apple’s design, from Nokia to HTC and Samsung. Instead of the mobile carriers controlling what apps and features its subscribers could have access to, the walled garden was broken down and the carriers turned into dumb pipes.

User experience is now controlled by the handset operating system, i.e., Apple and Android, enabling new suites of applications and industries from digital health to personal financial management tools; from on-demand services to social media. With a click of a button, we are instantly connected to our friends and colleagues across the world; we have access to information 24×7 right at our finger tips; and we can get what we want, when we want it, right at our doorstep. It is now easier than ever to consume, digitally or physically. Instead of paper currency, checks, and credit cards, we can now pay with our phones, our watches or other NFC wearables, a QR code, our fingerprint, or even a smile.

With great power comes great responsibilities. Beyond consumption, we must think about we can leverage technology to empower the future generation and to close the economic gaps – so that it’s not just a shiny new toy for the lucky few. We must find ways to promote financial literacy – when we don’t feel the pain of paying. Instead of enabling black boxes, we must also ensure fairness in our digital world that is now largely governed by algorithms.

Could we perhaps envision the Apple Card and alike – acting as a guardian of our financial well-being and security? Instead of nudging us to spend (albeit the 2 percent rewards at this point is quite small), it could perhaps also nudge us to save. Just as the activity rings give us a quick visual reference of our daily activity, and challenge us to meet our goals and do better, we could also envision financial fitness rings doing something similar – by suggesting goals we should set up for ourselves, and steps towards closing the rings.

The Apple Card (and Marcus) could also borrow the playbook from a few FinTech startups today – from providing virtual card numbers for online shopping, or learning users behavior and automatically applying various rewards and incentives, to helping reduce subscription charges that we have signed up for and forgotten.

There is no doubt that Apple can play a crucial role in helping us look beyond our current spending and our next bill. The question is how – and if the consumers will embrace it.

Only time will tell.

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Tune in for our take on the Apple Card, on iTunesand Spotify.

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