The titanium credit card Apple launched in 2019 was set to conquer the world, according to easy-to-excite types. The hype was so abundant that Samsung followed suit shortly out of fear of missing out. It’s Q4 2023 and Apple Card’s future looks bleak, as if the company has somehow forgotten about this little project.
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The Apple Card debuted slightly more than 4 years ago as a joint effort of Apple and Goldman Sachs. The global smartphone market was fairly saturated at that point already (it is even more saturated now) and this foray into the banking sector announced by Apple was seen by many as a bold step that could very well lead to a successful outcome. In fact, Samsung even decided to release a very similar product soon afterwards in hopes of jumping onto the very same bandwagon.
The card was set to only be available in the US initially, and it required one to have an iPhone to even order it, not to mention use it. Despite that, initial reception was more than warm. As it often is with Apple products, certain design flaws were quick to surface, generating a fair amount of angry words aimed at the company – and yet, the sky still appeared blue and entirely free of any troubling signs. At some point in 2021, it was reported that there were about 3 million users of the titanium credit card – a decent, although hardly record-breaking, number.
And then, the hype train just stopped. Apple paid little attention to the Card in 2022 and pretty much the same goes for 2023. There were no announcements or rumors indicating that Apple was taking steps to bring the Card to other markets; it was all very quiet, creating an impression that something’s not quite going according to the master plan. A few months ago, that feeling was made much stronger by reports that Apple and Goldman Sachs were about to part ways; at around the same time, it was reported that Apple was in talks with certain Indian companies to bring the Card to India. Neither of the two rumors has so far proved to be true.
However, the picture in general is not one of resounding success and marvellous expansion plans but rather one of “how do we end this without losing our faces”. While the rumor mill shows no intention of forgetting about the Apple Car and there is no shortage of news on the Apple Vision Pro headset, either, the Apple Card might just end up joining the iPods, the AirPort Extreme and other products that were at some point deemed boring and not worth the effort of further development. Perhaps it’s not profitable enough; it’s impossible to know the reasons, considering that “what happens at Apple, tends to stay at Apple”.
Sergey Tarasov – Senior Tech Writer – 2309 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2010
I love reading stuff. I also love dealing with different electronic devices, be that a remotely controlled toy or a new MacBook. When I am not at work, you can try searching for me somewhere in the mountains of Altai Republic, Russia.
Sergey Tarasov, 2023-10- 2 (Update: 2023-10- 2)
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