Why the Apple Event of Sept. 9th, 2014 Might Be a Really Big Deal



I know there are skeptics, but the integration of mobile devices and banking that Apple is undertaking could be a very big deal. 

I'll admit it's risky and it may not happen with the first try or right away, but mobile payments isn't just fan-boy fantasy. In China, banking has already been disrupted using mobile devices - shifting billions of dollars into new hands (if you've never heard of Yu'e Bao - you may want to do some research). 

Sure it's dumb to spend so much money just to replace an existing device like a watch. 

But the Apple Watch is just a watch like iTunes is just a record store. 

The people at Apple reinvented the music business with iTunes (and the iPod) by thinking about about how ordinary tasks (acquiring and listening to music) might be disrupted. 

And over a half a billion iTunes customers could seem like small potatoes when compared to the number of Apple Pay transactions Apple could facillitate every day - and the billions of dollars of revenue Apple could collect by taking a small fee on every Apple Pay transaction.




So the part of Sept. 9th, 2014's Apple event that got my attention was Apple's move on traditional credit card transactions. 

Most of the negative talk about the Apple Watch since the announcement has simply ignored the fact that Apple has already signed up major banks and retailers in the US for touch and go payments (major providers ranging from B of A, JP Morgan Chase to McDonalds). 




Remember music purchases before the iPod? 

The Apple Watch isn't just a shiny toy for telling time, it also offers a fundamentally new way of digitally doing an ordinary thing that currently is a pain (bank machines, cash, credit card receipts, etc.). 

If it works half as well as iTunes did for music - making buying a shockingly easier experience - Apple's system of mobile payments might be very big. 

Yes, it might not work. 

But - because Apple has put the necessary deals with content providers in place - is it so hard to imagine that Apple Pay could become very very big (bigger than iTunes?)? 

In short, you may want to own an Apple Watch for easy mobile payments - in addition to all the other functionality of that wearable device.

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