Interesting piece from Seeking Alpha (reg-wall):

Once paying for purchases at retail with a smartphone becomes commonplace, regardless of whether you believe Apple will roll out its own AppleCard, the credit card companies will fall one by one, starting with American Express. How can it possibly be prestigious to carry a Platinum or Black card when the card never leaves your wallet? Is it worth $300 or more per year when mostly what you’re paying for is a string of numbers punched into a smartphone that no one will ever see? As plastic credit cards disappear, which will accelerate with adoption, the ubiquitous Visa, MasterCard and American Express logos at retail establishments will be supplanted, and only one symbol will remain – a very large Apple.

Not sure the credit card companies “will fall”. Even without the “prestige” that comes along with showing off your black card, there are still plenty of differentiators: Air miles, cash back, concierge services, just to name a few. But that small part of business culture, pulling out a gold, platinum, or black credit card, will no doubt fall to the change brought by the acceptance of NFC.

A side point: I wonder who thought of Apple Pay in the first place. Was this inherited from Steve Jobs? The idea might have evolved from the iTunes/iPhone disruption model, but I don’t recall ever seeing Apple Pay attributed to Steve. Doesn’t sound like Jony either.

I think Apple Pay is a phenomenal business idea. Just wondering if this is Tim’s brainchild.