Goldman Sachs CEO testing Apple Card, foresees great interest in product at launch
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, who has been testing a beta version of Apple Card alongside employees at Goldman and Apple, is expecting high levels of consumer interest in the card based on early feedback.
Speaking with CNBC anchor Carl Quintanilla at Recode's Code Conference on Tuesday, Solomon said he is personally test driving the banking giant's first credit card prior to launch this summer.
As can be expected, the executive touted Apple Card's unique feature set, which includes at-a-glance app-based tools to help track and manage expenditures, make payments without incurring debt and more.
"It's in beta right now; there are some employees at Goldman Sachs and some employees of Apple that are using the card," Solomon said. "I'm using the card, I like the way it works. I like the simplicity, the lack of friction when it comes to paying bills, looking at what you've spent, ease of use."
Apple Card is advertised as Apple's vision of what a consumer credit product should be -- easy to use, packed with technology and highly secure.
Solomon believes the product will be a hit at launch.
"The early feedback indicated that there will be a lot of interest in it when we finally do launch it later this summer," Solomon said.
The executive did not clarify whether the "early feedback" he referenced is derived from beta testers or consumer research.
Apple Card was unveiled at a special Apple event in March. The product, backed by Goldman's Marcus arm, features NFC capabilities, no fees, cash back rewards and unique account management tools.
The card is slated to arrive sometime this summer.
Speaking with CNBC anchor Carl Quintanilla at Recode's Code Conference on Tuesday, Solomon said he is personally test driving the banking giant's first credit card prior to launch this summer.
As can be expected, the executive touted Apple Card's unique feature set, which includes at-a-glance app-based tools to help track and manage expenditures, make payments without incurring debt and more.
"It's in beta right now; there are some employees at Goldman Sachs and some employees of Apple that are using the card," Solomon said. "I'm using the card, I like the way it works. I like the simplicity, the lack of friction when it comes to paying bills, looking at what you've spent, ease of use."
Apple Card is advertised as Apple's vision of what a consumer credit product should be -- easy to use, packed with technology and highly secure.
Solomon believes the product will be a hit at launch.
"The early feedback indicated that there will be a lot of interest in it when we finally do launch it later this summer," Solomon said.
The executive did not clarify whether the "early feedback" he referenced is derived from beta testers or consumer research.
Apple Card was unveiled at a special Apple event in March. The product, backed by Goldman's Marcus arm, features NFC capabilities, no fees, cash back rewards and unique account management tools.
The card is slated to arrive sometime this summer.
Comments
The main problem Apple will face (only in the USA) is that in the USA the use of EMV (which stands for "Europay, Mastercard, Visa") for contactless payments isn't widespread. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV For some reason the US is slow to deploy contactless payment systems. I travelled through the US recently and the restaurants actually took my credit card and pumped it through a carbon paper receipt mechanism. That's how I used to pay for things 40 years ago in Canada. Why is America so technologically backwards? There are about 100 nations further ahead, such as Russia and Bangladesh. (I'm probably going to get in trouble for saying that.)
So if it works in the USA, despite these technology challenges, it will work much better in the "technologically developed world."
I will admit one deficiency in EMV. There's a limit on how much you can purchase without a PIN or signature. That limit varies from country to country but averages about $50 (although it's $100 here in Canada.) Sometimes when I'm paying for a family dinner that goes "over the limit" and my transaction gets rejected and I have to redo it with an insecure PIN instead of my secure fingerprint. I sure hope Apple finds a way to increase the limit to a value higher than "dinner for two". I can't even fill my gas tank contactlessly because of the limit.
Looking forward to trying it out.
That has nothing to do with Apple.
I don't. But look now long it took anybody to come up with a card anything like the Apple Card, with a fraction of the consumer friendly emphasis. I can wait until the last day of summer, if need be.
Other than NFC convenience, had any card offered anything for the user other than incentives to spend? I use a debit card as my daily driver and keep my credit cards at home. The Apple Card will be my daily card for purchases great and small.
Goldman Sachs now has their Marcus bank over here in the UK, so they do have a necessary presence.
JPMorganChase
American Express
Capital One
(thats in order of card holder numbers)
Truthfully, Goldman is waaaaay late to the game & had to team with someone like Apple in order to gain any amount of traction in the market.
My Chase card has been EMV chip for almost a 8 years, NFC for 2 years.
My Citi card has been chip for a decade.
The US is just incredibly slow to adoption - Visa & Mastercard have been rolling out biometric cards for 1-2 years in the rest of the world. Just like EMV chip having a decade head start in Europe over the US.
The card itself isn't that much different from any other card -- the differences are mostly superficial stuff.
But I think you are correct that this will generate a LOT of interest.
For myself, I'll probably get one. But I won't see it as any big deal.
But I am looking at this as Apple's way to get their foot into the door of modern FinTech which can revolutionize banking and money handling around the world. I am thinking & hoping that, for Apple, this is just the first step of a long journey.
Like the iPhone and iTunes music sales, one day there won't be that much difference between the Apple Card and other credit cards. That day ain't today.
Most of the POS readers were ridiculously slow for chipped cards and only in the last six months or so have those I use regularly been sped up. I don't know if it was a firmware or infrastructure problem, but it took awhile to be fixed.
Just as there may still be slow chip readers around, I'm sure it will take still more time before the they become the norm and strip readers are rare. When that time seems to have arrived, I'll take a magnet and swipe the stripe.