The last 2 weeks has seen Apple trend on news feeds about it's reported new relationship with American Express.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Although I stand squarely in the protagonist camp for Mobile Payments cannibalising Cards, I actually believe Apples move here is a good thing.
Many pundits are saying Mobile Payments will destroy the card industry. For the moment, I say they are dead wrong. Here's why.
What Apple is doing will in fact speed up the move from Card to Mobile.
The hardest part of embedding any new behaviour is burying the old behaviour good and proper so it doesn't come back. And this needs to be completed before we can say the Card Industry is dead. It could be some years ahead of us yet.
When customers get used to swiping their phone, what will they be feeling? If you're reading this, you probably get a buzz from doing cool things with your phone.
What's more Geeky than swiping your iPhone grabbing your stuff and leaving a store? It doesn't get any better.
Once customers are used to swiping, tapping or scanning with their iPhone it will be much easier for Payment Startups to expand.
Remember the days when paying by phone was only a rumble in the jungle from Kenya? It was a hard concept to explain. Goodness, there were so many questions.
How does it work?
Where is the money?
Is it safe?
Can I be robbed?
Today we have just one question. "When can I have it?"
The education has been done well by the first few entrants. It would be their greatest mistake to think they can "own" the market, and I'll use a bog standard household vacuum cleaner to prove my point.
If you live in the UK, do you have a Dyson (or wish you had)?
When Dyson entered the market, just about everyone had a "Hoover", as we call them here...
The old Hoover headquarters are about as dusty as the inside of one of their vacuum bags. things have moved on. Up the road it seems, to Dyson House.
The shift from just about every home owning a hoover to the new techie-geeky looking Dyson caught everyone out.
That's exactly why the banks should wake up. Customer's demand an instant gratification today. Millennials won't wait a millennium for you.
Apple has hit the nail on the head for their market. A premium Card for Premium Customers.
If we do this right, in a way that customers want, cards will eventually disappear. Until then, I am very happy Apple is doing such great work, educating the masses.
Apple Pay is not for the masses at the Base of the Pyramid. Google has potential to grab this with their sub $100 smartphone. Watch this space. The disruption is only just beginning...
Want to know more? Or just want to get some ideas on how Mobile Money can help your enterprise? So long as you are not a recruiter looking for cannon fodder, contact me via Linkedin.
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