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Maybe they'll do to the credit card companies what they're did to the music labels and doing to the cell phone cos. There's plenty of cash in that 3%.

tjogin 16y ago
What Apple's got though, are credit card numbers. They can't really leverage credit card numbers to route around credit card companies.
buro9 16y ago
Not a chance in hell, unless Apple are opening a bank and manage to switch everyone to it. Visa, Mastercard... these are more like trade associations for the banks. They are effectively owned and operated by the banks, and the only reason Mastercard exists is to ensure Visa do not have a monopoly and vice versa. Discovery, Amex... these have their place, but they are members clubs, which is to say that they have little to no penetration within the marketspace that is banking customers. Apple are simply doing the equivalent of a PayPal using a mobile. They aren't replacing the existing payment systems, they are becoming one more intermediary in the chain. The actual billing is likely to be done by the mobile subscription service... AT&T and the like rather than Apple. All phones are getting this, not just Apple mobile devices. This stuff also isn't new, in Japan near-field payments have existed for a long time and are taken for granted in many types of services (vending machines for example). It's just that finally this is moving westwards (eastwards if your perspective is different). [edit]I notice the down votes, but this isn't spam or trolling it's just a different opinion. It's not even an uneducated opinion as my ex-girlfriend worked for Visa for 6 years and my current girl lived in Japan for 8 years and used near field payments there. Downvoting just because you disagree isn't going to change the argument that Apple are inserting themselves into the payments process only superficially and that contrary to the parent post they aren't, and couldn't, move into replacing the credit card companies as the card companies are the banks.

tjogin 16y ago

What Apple's got though, are credit card numbers. They can't really leverage credit card numbers to route around credit card companies.

buro9 16y ago

Not a chance in hell, unless Apple are opening a bank and manage to switch everyone to it. Visa, Mastercard... these are more like trade associations for the banks. They are effectively owned and operated by the banks, and the only reason Mastercard exists is to ensure Visa do not have a monopoly and vice versa. Discovery, Amex... these have their place, but they are members clubs, which is to say that they have little to no penetration within the marketspace that is banking customers. Apple are simply doing the equivalent of a PayPal using a mobile. They aren't replacing the existing payment systems, they are becoming one more intermediary in the chain. The actual billing is likely to be done by the mobile subscription service... AT&T and the like rather than Apple. All phones are getting this, not just Apple mobile devices. This stuff also isn't new, in Japan near-field payments have existed for a long time and are taken for granted in many types of services (vending machines for example). It's just that finally this is moving westwards (eastwards if your perspective is different). [edit]I notice the down votes, but this isn't spam or trolling it's just a different opinion. It's not even an uneducated opinion as my ex-girlfriend worked for Visa for 6 years and my current girl lived in Japan for 8 years and used near field payments there. Downvoting just because you disagree isn't going to change the argument that Apple are inserting themselves into the payments process only superficially and that contrary to the parent post they aren't, and couldn't, move into replacing the credit card companies as the card companies are the banks.