AppleInsider Staff
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.
Amber Neely
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
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23 Comments
You don't need a crystal ball to know that more people are interested in this card over the launch of any other CC in history.
I, for one, will be an early adopter
You do wonder why it takes so long to get this card launched? Technically Summer begins in about two weeks... Oh well, if its as popular as it seems, you'll get the email to sign up, and then get one that says your new card will arrive in 4 to 6 weeks..
Not only will millions of people acquire this card, but it will be the card that they actually use. This is not a secondary card; it's a primary. I don't know if the other card companies are publicly traded, but it might be a good time to sell their stock short.
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.