Was the Apple Card too good?

Look at it this way, while Apple has to sell and invent real products and services to make its money, banks just need to increase property values to charge interest on mortgage money they notionally lend which doesn’t actually exist. A little like artificially manipulated crypto value spikes, it’s a lot easier to create scarcity than to meet it with what people need. In this scenario, the banks have the upper hand.

There’s a certain irony to that. When it was introduced, Apple Card posed a titan’s challenge to the industry. 

Eating with the enemy

The features, including app-driven features, were second to none. The business proposition tilted hard toward customer convenience, and Apple’s foray into the financial system (in conjunction with even deeper stabs at retail banking’s most profitable markets by other challenge banks) arguably helped force established financial institutions to get their act together and improve their customer offerings.