Apple's four financial services are postponed, and Apple must also be "fully self-developed" to do finance?

Wisdom Stuff (Public Number: Zhidxcom)

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According to Bloomberg, Apple's series of new financial service plans, including "Apple pay later" and "Apple Card Savings Account", have been delayed and not completed on time.

According to Bloomberg, expanding into financial services is one of Apple's biggest growth opportunities, but also one of its most challenging jobs. Apple's new strategy has encountered engineering and technical difficulties that have led to slow progress.

First, four financial service plans have been postponed, and the platform engineering challenges are great

In the past eight months, Apple has announced at least two new features: a "buy now, pay later" service, scheduled to launch in June and originally scheduled for September. The other, a savings account project tied to Apple Wallet, was announced in October and was supposed to be delivered weeks ago, but none of them were completed on time.

Two other yet-to-be-announced financial initiatives have also been delayed. One is an iPhone hardware subscription plan, and the other is an Apple Pay Monthly Installment plan, which can handle larger, longer installments for a certain amount of interest.

All four delays stem from challenges in building technology platforms.

Apple plans to create an underlying platform, Project Breakout, to support Apple's financial services projects, calling it "one of the most ambitious parts of Apple's financial business." The core significance of the platform is that Apple wants to develop its own technology to internalize financial work, including interest calculation, payment processing, credit checking, loan risk assessment, etc., so as to firmly control financial projects in its own hands, rather than handing over to partners.

Second, the "buy now, pay later" function delivered internal testing, financial strategy see the "dawn"

Recently, Apple's financial services project has made new progress.

After a delay of months, Apple is preparing to release the first version of the "buy now, pay later" feature to consumers. A few weeks ago, Apple began allowing company employees to test the feature. Earlier this month, it opened the service to retail employees, in effect a test run of tens of thousands of people.

In a memo sent to retail employees, Apple said that employees participating in the test were not allowed to share screenshots or demos about the feature, nor could they discuss the matter with anyone inside or outside the company, and stated that employees participating in the preview of the feature must abide by the confidentiality agreements they had signed.

The company adopted a similar process for Apple Card in 2019, offering it to retail employees about a month before the feature's public release.

In Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, the Buy Now Pay Later beta is not yet available. Apple's union store in Towson, Maryland, doesn't yet offer that option. Last year, Apple caused an uproar for not offering the latest employee benefits to employees in the region.

Given that retail testing was launched just last week, expect the feature to be available in March or April. This service is not limited to specific versions, such as the upcoming iOS 16.4, which can also be enabled wirelessly on iOS 16.3.

Apple will decide whether to expand to a higher transaction amount based on the online performance of the initial version of "buy now, pay later".

Third, the "dawn" is still weak, the three plans are difficult to advance, and the financial strategic territory lacks corners

Regarding the "Apple Card Savings Account," when Apple announced the new feature in October, it claimed it would be released "in the coming months."

At the time, everything seemed to have hit its mark: Apple quickly added the underlying code to support the feature in iOS 16.1 last year, and partner Goldman Sachs Group released a detailed description of the feature in December. But since then, Apple and Goldman Sachs have not released any news.

Meanwhile, iPhone hardware subscription services were supposed to launch in 2022 or 2023. When the iPhone 14 was released last year, the service was still in development, which would have been an ideal time to launch the service, but it didn't end up on the iPhone 14.

Another key component of Apple's financial strategy has also been slow: the international expansion of Apple Card. Apple Card was released in March 2019, and three years later, it's still only available in the United States.

Conclusion: Apple's "breakthrough" of the financial world is blocked, but the follow-up potential cannot be underestimated

It is reported that in 2022, Apple is planning to enter the financial industry and internalize the financial business by building its own platform, which is codenamed "breakthrough" within the company.

Although Apple's financial services plan has been delayed, engineering and technical bottlenecks have not yet been broken, Apple has also made some progress, for example, "Apple Pay" has been rolled out to most parts of the world (South Korea will be launched soon), Apple also provides small businesses with one-click payment function.

Apple is determined to play a bigger role in consumers' financial lives, but it may be a long time away.

Source: Bloomberg