Apple is uniquely positioned to be the one company that finally kills off the ol’ wallet.
Earlier this week, I managed to do something that’s generally been impossible in New York City: I didn’t take my wallet out for two days straight, and still managed to pay for food, get around, and live my life. I didn’t even have to try… It was magical…
Apple seems uniquely positioned to kill off the wallet. It’s trying to kill off the credit card with Apple Pay and its own digital card. It’s already brought tickets, boarding passes, loyalty cards, and cash cards out of the wallet and into the phone. How much is left?
It’s nice, on some level, to envision a future where all you need to remember when you go out of the house is your phone or watch, and Apple certainly seems to be ushering us into that vision. But whether we’ve thought through every possible outcome of that world, other whether we really need it (just put your keys in your bag, maybe?), is still up for debate.
MacDailyNews Take: Just last evening we ran out to the local convenience store to pick up some bread and half and half and realized we’d forgotten our wallets. Good thing we had our Apple Watches on our wrists! With a flick of a wrist, we paid with Apple Pay on our Apple Card. Couldn’t have been easier and no antiquated wallet, cash, or physical card required – plus 2% Daily Cash back!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ladd” for the heads up.]
It would be nice to kill the wallet with something smaller like an iPhone SE or the AppleWatch.
And yet, Apple’s cute little boutiques are chock full of fat expensive iPhone cases with pockets and folding flaps into which people stuff all kinds of non-digital essentials, like D’s NRA lifetime membership card.
Humans are not 100% digital. Anyone who wants to dumb down humans to rely on digital services at all times should think twice about the Wall-E future that they are creating for everyone. Apple doesn’t appear to have any strategy except to match whatever the other companies are doing. Apple Glassholes next, according to rumors. How original.
Apple knows their Watch, like all wearable, can’t and won’t replace the vastly more capable devices that it also sells. Apple simply wants to replicate the iOS store into many different narrow-use gadgets so devotees will repeat their app & accessory purchases over and over. It’s working for 10% of the population. They think it’s so cool to be able to, for example, check the weather forecast on their wrist, in their ears, in their hands, on their laptops, in their talking speaker, on the legacy tools every house already has, and also on new homekit gadgets. Does this make any logical sense? Only to a fanboy. Chinese E-waste to excess!
You certainly don’t see this kind of enthusiasm for Apple in a post very often. Sounds like you’ll be spending up large once your new Apple Card arrives.
Its definitely getting better but there are still a lot of places where you still need to get out your wallet. Restaurants are probably the biggest bottleneck. The portable card reader is a rarity in the US which is a shame.
Touchless payments are like keyless ignition in the car for me. I have had that for over ten years with my Prius but manufacturers like Porsche still insist on you having to put in a key (even if it is contactless) to start the car. It is really annoying having to get the keys out. Slower and unnecessary in this day and age. It’s the same for ApplePay. Great when it is available and annoying when it is not.
Nothing has the anonymity (and inherent privacy) of cash. I don’t think my location ought be determinable, let alone trackable, by my spending habits. Convenience will probably be the death of everyone who thinks it trumps everything else.
I want cash to remain available as a choice on order for me to determine how much I would share with authorities, peeping toms, corporations, hackers, and the spy state at any particular transaction.
Cash is just a human constructed tool for transferring wealth. There is no reason the digital equivalent of cash couldn’t be just as anonymous. We just have to be vigilant in our pressure on companies to respect our privacy. The fact is, the majority of the public will give up privacy for free or reduced goods (I’m looking at you free VPN apps and gmail).
Yes, there is a reason that electronic payments will never be anonymous. Because they are all controlled by profit seeking corporations who know they can make more money off you by tracking and selling everything you do. Apple may claim it anonymizes your movements, but Goldman Sachs isn’t making any such claims.
Do you think a non-capitalist state would be better?
A Fascist state would likely be no improvement and its governance, of course, would oppress.
Your concluding phrase warrants an article; And even the most secure oil pipeline running through the bleakest desert gets tapped.
Please choose another word instead of that third to last word.
Thank you.
Apple Pay (I use it for most transactions) has helped minimize my wallet, but not eliminated the need. All the stores I deal with only allow a maximum of $100 on a “tap” or Apple Pay transaction. Until this is changed, I still have to carry plastic and/or cash. Also, government agencies would need to accept digital versions of ID, etc., before the wallet can stay in my drawer at home.
I see people at cash registers holding up the line because they can’t find the coupon or offer or whatever they have on their phone that the cashier needs to scan. For most people, finding stuff on your phone is harder and slower then finding it in your wallet. And ever since iOS 7, Apple has had zero common sense as to what makes a good interface. This is just going to slow things down and frustrate people.
Get used to it. POS terminals have only gotten worse as every large Silicon Valley company tries to get into the banking biz. No wonder large chain stores are trying to automate clerks out of their jobs. It is humanly impossible to make sense of the dozens of ways people try to pay these days.
“Like, um, do ya guys accept Crypo Crash Chip Pay? It’s like, totally the future ya know.”
The irony of ironies would be if history showed that Apple itself, along with SJW Ccok, is leading toward a cashless society and (something that Fundie Cristians love to preach and look forward to) “…the mark of the Beast.”
Haven’t carried a wallet in years. I have a Vena iPhone case that can carry 3 cards on the back, ID, credit card and Tesla keycard.
My house has a Schlage keypad lock. So, no wallet, no keys to carry. Just my iPhone and my AppleWatch.
My wallet is already on life support, and it’s still hemorrhaging cash.
There’s more than one way to become a member of a cashless society.
And places like Wal-Mart can’t seem to get their readers to operate correctly. I have encountered so many problems. The one thing that drives me nuts are the grocery stores that accept Apple Pay, but the card reader treats it as an atm card and you must enter your PIN number. If you want to use it as a credit card, you must go through additional steps.
Just point your iPhone at the menu in a restaurant.
Count out the donut shop owned by Asians. Cash only.
In the USA this might be true but, elsewhere in the world, where we use chip cards and just “tap and go” (no pin required below a certain value) it is much less hassle to pull a card out of your wallet and tap the cash register terminal than to turn on the iPhone, select Apple Pay, choose your credit card and wave the phone at the terminal.
Apple will be the one to completely empty the wallet… and not in a good way.
I can’t even get Apple’s digital Wallet App to work reliably at airport boarding pass scanners. Why should we trust Apple to get banking “fixed”. Apple is like every other corporation with a walled garden, treating its penned sheep like they cannot possibly live life without relying on every single one of Apple Megacorp’s fabulous smorgasbord of half baked services.
By the way, the Apple Watch hasn’t saved me any time or money. It’s just another battery draining gadget that replaces nothing.
Apple can pry my leather wallet with my family’s crinkled old photos out of my cold dead hands.
Forgot my wallet the other day, had my phone so could still get around. Forgot my phone recently but had my wallet and because I was just popping out and was already closer to my destination than home I didn’t go back. Ultimately I think it never hurts to have a backup.