neoncat

randominternetperson said:

I know that Apple has a minor partnership with the Apple Watch, but this seemed gratuitous. And, no, there is no way it was just happenstance.

Adding to what Mpantone said, Cook is also on Nike's Board of Directors. Watch some older product reveal videos—you'll see he's wearing Nikes in all of them. 

Flexing that you got your hands on a PlayDate, I see. 

There is zero benefit to AI's mission, audience, or reputation to give DED this much space to say so impossibly little. Meandering daydreams as if spoken from a sideshow preacher's pulpit. 

I don't always agree with what AI writes or its tone, and that's OK! I still take something, or learn something, from every article. Except these. I am dumber for having spent the time.

This was back at the old Infinite Loop campus, but I was lucky enough to be invited to lunch at Caffé Macs by a friend who worked at Apple at the time. Even back then, it was astonishingly good for what it is: a corporate "cafeteria," essentially. Every cuisine imaginable. 

entropys said:

Why not just straight with Mastercard or visa? Logo issues?

Might even make it easier to expand Apple Card overseas.

Because Visa and Mastercard don't issue cards. They run the payment networks that move money from banks to merchants as a result of a purchase and handle granting access to that network to card issuers and merchants. The issuing bank is who maintains the relationship with you, the cardholder, and does things like determine the credit risk, collect payments, etc. This is different than AmEx which is both an issuing bank and controls their own payment network, but that's why there's only one AmEx versus lots of Visas or MasterCards. 

As a result, Apple would need to charter a bank to issue the card itself, subjecting itself to the intense regulations that banks operate under. And a bank cannot just exist to issue credit cards—it would need to be capitalized through some other means, like consumer banking or lending. It is much smarter for them, with much lower risk, to partner with an existing bank. Whether or not GS was the right choice or not is up for debate. I suspect if Chase indeed takes over at some point, the whole process will become much less fraught with the sort of problems GS suffered.

EDIT: Beaten by Caskey by 1 minute!