Apple discontinues 'Cards' service for iOS, recommends iPhoto instead

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Following Apple's iPhone event on Tuesday, the company announced the shutdown of its Cards service, which allowed users to design and send physical greeting cards from an iOS app.

Cards


While Apple has yet to release an official statement regarding the reasons behind Cards' closure, the discontinuation of services brings an end to the endeavor that first debuted in 2011. The shutdown was first spotted by MacRumors earlier today.

Although not one of Apple's major iOS titles, the discontinuation of services is somewhat peculiar given the app was updated as recently as June. As noted above, customers who ordered cards before 1 p.m. Pacific on Sept. 10, 2013, will have their purchases delivered.

Instead of going through Cards, Apple recommends letterpress cards be ordered via iPhoto.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 51
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    What, why?! As long as that functionality is added to iPhoto for iOS (as it's in iPhoto for OS X), that's fine, but…

  • Reply 2 of 51
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member
    Crap. I thought it was a very nice service when you needed a send a card. It's not something I needed to do all the time. Maybe that was the problem.
  • Reply 3 of 51
    kozchriskozchris Posts: 209member
    That sucks. I used the cards app a few times and was happy with the result.
  • Reply 4 of 51
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,404member

    It was a cute, limited, but fairly useless app. The type of thing I would have expected a smart computer science graduate student to create as part of his/her summer project. 

  • Reply 5 of 51
    rmansfieldrmansfield Posts: 12member
    I used it a number of times and really liked it. But how many times has Apple done this? They introduce a service like this that has potential, but still needs a few improvements, ignore it completely afterwards, and then completely kill it later on.
  • Reply 6 of 51
    thedavid311thedavid311 Posts: 42member
    Probably because it had "Scott Forstall" written all over it. Wasn't that one of his things?
  • Reply 7 of 51
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    rmansfield wrote: »
    I used it a number of times and really liked it. But how many times has Apple done this? They introduce a service like this that has potential, but still needs a few improvements, ignore it completely afterwards, and then completely kill it later on.

    Ping comes to mind. Could have rocked if they had opened it to all artists, added the discovery stuff fromLala etc

    But they released it half baked and left it like that
  • Reply 8 of 51
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member
    thedavid311 wrote: »
    Probably because it had "Scott Forstall" written all over it. Wasn't that one of his things?

    I don't know why but that made me chuckle. :)
  • Reply 9 of 51
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by TheDavid311 View Post

    Probably because it had "Scott Forstall" written all over it.

     

    No idea why, but that made me think of this.

  • Reply 10 of 51
    bluestonebluestone Posts: 53member

    Much as I love Apple, and even though I have at least a dozen Apple boxes in my house, I have to say that Apple is exquisitely competent in irritating its customer base.

     

    I give you killing iDVD.

     

    I give you killing Rosetta.

     

    And many more.

     

    And now, killing Cards?

     

    My GF loved Cards.  I got lots of fringe benefits from the GF with Cards.

     

    And now it's dead.

     

    Sigh...

  • Reply 11 of 51
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by Bluestone View Post

    I give you killing iDVD. I give you killing Rosetta.


     

    Discs and PowerPC are LONG dead. Those aren't valid. Cards, however, will always be sent.

  • Reply 12 of 51
    bluestonebluestone Posts: 53member

    Yeah.  Shakespeare is long dead too, isn't he?

     

    I would find Rosetta and updates to iDVD enormously useful myself.  I'm not alone.  Check out the iDVD forum - lots of people still looking for it.

  • Reply 13 of 51
    punkndrublicpunkndrublic Posts: 215member

    Dammit, I used Cards all the time.  And it was cool using your own photos, which means a lot more to family members using fam bam vacation fun pics.  Now I have family pic of tequila shooting thats going to go to waste this xmas. 

  • Reply 14 of 51
    lord amhranlord amhran Posts: 902member
    tallest skil wrote: »
    Discs and PowerPC are LONG dead. Those aren't valid. Cards, however, will always be sent.
    CD's & DVD's (discs) aren't dead. Not by a long shot.
  • Reply 15 of 51
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Cards goes back to Steve Jobs and Season Greeting web cards.
  • Reply 16 of 51
    pt123pt123 Posts: 696member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Lord Amhran View Post





    CD's & DVD's (discs) aren't dead. Not by a long shot.

    Saying it over and over until blue in the face might get him to believe it.

  • Reply 17 of 51
    mdwishmdwish Posts: 3member
    I loved this. It was such an awesome way to send a personalized greeting card/postcard home while traveling. I probably only bought 5 cards during the whole time, but thats way more than iTunes songs I've bought...?
  • Reply 18 of 51
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    As an Apple user located overseas I suspect one of the reasons it was cancelled was because of lack of popularity.

    Why would something as universal as an app for sending cards be unpopular when hundreds of thousands of cards are sent every day? Because I suspect the cards were all dispatched from one central location in America, which vastly affected delivery times.

    I used the service twice, three weeks before the cards occasion. On my first try, the card was received within five weeks (two weeks late for the occasion). On the second, it was received within a week, about two weeks too early for the occasion. After that I gave up.

    This is not Apple's fault, as they have no way to affect how international mail is sent and received but, in order to ensure that cards were received within a timely fashion, they would possibly need to create printing facilities in each individual country/region, something that is not financially feasible.

    Possibly this could have been addressed by adding the option for sending the cards electronically instead, something which, to my knowledge, was never tried.

    I'm sad to see it go (it was a great app) but it just didn't meet my needs.
  • Reply 19 of 51
    bikertwinbikertwin Posts: 566member
    Did I understand this correctly? The service isn't being discontinued, just the app.

    It will presumably be replaced by an updated iPhoto which is now also FREE.

    Where is the problem?
  • Reply 20 of 51
    tontontonton Posts: 14,067
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by bikertwin View Post



    Did I understand this correctly? The service isn't being discontinued, just the app.



    It will presumably be replaced by an updated iPhoto which is now also FREE.



    Where is the problem?

     

    Having a card sent by FedEx is not the same thing, unfortunately.

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