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Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'We're Going To Kill Cash' (cnet.com)
At a media event on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the Touch ID on the new MacBook Pros will make it incredibly easy for people to do online money transactions. After the event, speaking to reporters Cook made a bold statement about how he sees Apple Pay. CNET reports: "We're going to kill cash," he said. "Nobody likes to carry around cash." He makes most of his purchases with Apple Pay (which is not surprising).Cook's comment comes days after Australia's top banks refused to support Apple Pay, saying that the company has been 'intransigent, closed and controlling'.
with the lack of RAM upgrades for nearly six years.
But you're wrong. There are a metric crapton of us out here who like to carry cash.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Closing the loop on cash transactions is just another way to ensure everything we do is tracked.
And maybe I'm a curmudgeon, but I like cash. Splitting the lunch bill with coworkers is easiest that way.
List of things killed by apple:
Headphones
Escape key
Cash
I use cash for almost everything...
The only thing I usually use my card for is the gas pump (because it is so much more convenient).
Cash has already been killed by cards.
LOL
If the new MBP is any indication. Hardware a generation behind, a new blah addition, killing the cheapest portable laptop option, and charging more than the old product.
They need a new CEO. One who is not a COO, but someone who actually uses a product every now and again.
Doesn't use cash? Yeah, it's pretty easy when your assistants are the ones taking care of most of your needs.
I'm sorry but my dealer disagrees.
Six years into his CEO tenure and all we keep getting is promises about the great products Apple has in the pipeline. That pipeline must be long enough to stretch to the moon because we haven't seen anything great since he's been in charge.
I *like* cash for many things.
Sometimes I like cards, too.
Cards that get input into the electronic device so I can try to use that in place of the card? Well, it's better than writing a check, but is otherwise completely unappealing.
So: bleh.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
I carry hundreds in cash all the time to get thru the checkout line quickly and anonymously. The only reason for not using cash is the CC discount (payback of 3% etc.). What is the discount offered by Apple? I have multiple CC's today and I only use the one paying the largest discount.
Sorry, Timmy. Not interested in paying taxes to you. Not a share holder, don't own any of your products, don't want to own any of your products. FOAD.
I haven't carried cash this millennium. I use my debit card for everything.
Apple can't do anything about the people who still carry cash, though--those people can't afford Apple devices.
Clearly, the taxing entity that is your overlord would be against this tool of the tax scoundrel, right? What gives?
Oh yeah, the rich people like it, too.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
The Federal Reserve.
I love cash.
Literally, I'll not be able to buy food after Apple kills cash. Then I'll die.
NSA Says, "We're going to kill cash......so we can surveil you."
And I do like cash.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Once you purchase apple devices and accessories, you have no cash left - only debt.
Android continues to grow in all global marketsand Apple iPhone continues to decline. I think Tim Cook over estimates how much weight Apple has these days. There is no way this will happen (in Australia at least) unless it is an open standard.
So Tim Cook wants to take away headphone jacks, magsafe and now cash. What's next? Christmas?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Why carry a wallet with cash when you can lug around your macbook pro instead.
The internet is not accessible in large parts of the world away from "cities" making Apple Pay completely useless.
Well, I 'spose one could just give the person the phone as a time piece in exchange for a stick of gum.
What a nut bag.
All he's doing is buying time until his stock kicks in, then he's cashing out, ka ching!
And doesn't matter that Apple is going down the crapper.
So sad.
And I endorse that message!
Johnny's already dead.
Not even if they gave iPhones away for free so everyone could actually use it.
its time to track yet more types transactions with your brand as PRISM did?
Removing more anonymity and privacy and replacing it with more currency transaction reporting, suspicious activity reporting and monetary instrument logs.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Lately it feels like looking for insight on Slashdot has become quite difficult, though I miss the humor more. I think that may be a problem with tempo. Not certain, but I speculate that the traffic volume is down, but the story tempo has remained unchanged. If that speculation is correct, then most stories fail to reach critical mass for discussion before they fall off the front page and effectively become invisible. Even worse, it would appear to be a negative feedback loop, in that less interesting discussions drives the traffic volume even lower.
Obvious suggestion is to reduce the number of featured stories to reflect the traffic volume, picking fewer stories of higher quality and keeping them visible and active for longer periods. However, the absence of a viable financial model also means it is unlikely whipslash et alia care that much...
Returning to the actual topic of this story, I have reached only three conclusions from many my experiences with Apple over the years:
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Howz that work when Samsung has to recall countless millions of phones?
They are Apple's primary phone rival by far.
I'm not an Apple fan and don't use their phone, but I've noticed that Apple haters always say things that make no sense.
Interesting take and background on this idea, and some why it's a bad idea: http://thelongandshort.org/soc...
I do you pretentious fag.
cook will go thermonuclear war over it.
Ives as well. I have a feeling Ives' crazy/bad ideas were kept in check by Jobs, but Cook likely doesn't feel as confident disagreeing with him. "I told Steve many times we need to make the trackpad huge, people like that. He didn't understand. Said it'd be really annoying if people's palms touched it." "Yeah, sounds good. I trust you, let's do it. Our software wizards can magically fix any issues it could have."
Are they going to bring their billions back into the USA and pay the tax thats owing on it?
And nobody accepts cheques these days.
Not to defend Apple here but in this case it's the banks complaining that Apple Pay doesn't let them abuse their customers.
We have a system already whereby you can carry a little tiny card of plastic around with you to buy things. It works almost universally. It's already somewhat "killed cash".
And this idiot thinks that now being able to use something that's slightly more difficult to use at best is somehow going to "kill cash" more than it already is?
He's a moron and he's talking stupidly. Debit and credit cards "killed cash" already about as much as it will be killed anytime soon.
*I* love to have, carry, and use cash.
Fuck customer choice, touchscreens, cash, etc.
If they kill cash you can bet they will replace it with a bunch of iFees.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Apple's standard lead time for a hardware device from commencement through design and prototyping and production to launch is 8 years.
Getting rid of tokens for barter transactions and forcing everyone into a trackable electronic society does not benefit the majority of common people. Those who live in an ivory tower are used to trading in gold and diamonds instead of wood and coal. It does NOT benefit you and me. It only benefits corporations and governments.
How do I pay for my hookers and blow in a manner that can't be traced?
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Australia's top banks refused to support Apple Pay, saying that the company has been 'intransigent, closed and controlling'.
Correction: a prima facie illegal cartel of some Australian banks are refusing to support Apple Pay because their "rape the customer and give shitty service" gravy train will be over.
Here in New Zealand cash was all but killed many years ago. We were early adopters of POS cards and for decades now even the smallest stores have relied almost entirely on card transactions. A few years ago I tried paying for coffee with cash and the young lady behind the counter looked at the notes as if I'd just handed her a fish as payment. She had to ask her manager how to process cash.
Like most people I know, I carry a small amount of cash in my wallet just in case, but it's the same two $20 notes I've had in there for about a year.
However, as rare as it is for me to use cash, I occasionally still do. For example, if my kids need a couple of dollars for a school activity, a coin is the best solution. I've lived half of my 50 years almost cash-free but it will never be completely cash-free. I can't see why it would be a good idea to lose the cash option completely, and I seriously doubt that it will ever happen.
i pay off my credit cards with cash, 15 to 25% goes to privilege of using the cards (despite myself a co-reator of that private credit mistakenly loaned to me). My credit card was initially paymented by myself using another credit card and they took me to court with a Touring-esque froun for making payments on my payments on my payments with credit card accounts because (chuh ching) the credit card company only wants cash!
God Shave the Queer!
"We're going to kill [our] cash [cow]"
While I use credit cards for a lot of things. I have no desire to fully replace cash and I DO LIKE to carry cash. cash doesn't require me to ensure I have a charge on my phone/laptop, it still works if the shop is having technology issues and is hugely convenient for small transactions. that is without getting into all the extra security and tracking issues with technology solutions here.
For the single reason that is all reasons when it comes to whether something catches on or not:
Porn
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
No, Tim... "The police state doesn't like proles carrying around untraceable cash." You tone-deaf elitist.
I assume that's a "We, and we alone..."
(why open the door to those other competing payment methods).
and me and my cartel friendos totally suport that message
btw, i dont know if you guys noticed, but he lost the wonderful oppotunity to say
"WE ARE GOING TO KILL CASH...
WITH NO SURVIVORS!!!!!!!!"
so obviously he isnt killing anything
If you never need a car, pick up your starbucks on the way to the subway while buying downloadable content to your phone on the way to work that has direct deposit so you can pay for peapod to deliver groceries, sure.
From the other 99% of the country, fuck you Apple.
The iPhone 6/6+ was pretty great and something Jobs was opposed to. It was also obvious and proven in the market already, but it was still great.
Chances are good that if there was Jobs instead of Cook, we wouldn't have seen anything even as good as the 6.
"We're going to kill cash," he said. With the announced MBPs it seems that it is Apple's own cash pile that he plans to kill. And he's already making excuses for the Apple shareholders. "Nobody likes to carry around cash."
Nobody likes to carry around cash
Well, I prefer to carry cash rather than to disclose what I buy and where I am to banks and others that piggy back on them.
A cashless system could easily stop individuals from any purchase deemed unsuitable or unnecessary. Do you want that?
Apple's standard lead time for a hardware device from commencement through design and prototyping and production to launch is 8 years.
Conveniently around the same timeframe that they switch CEOs. Except this time there is no Steve Jobs to fall back on and save the company.
They have been coasting since his death and now Apple is on a downward slide. Tim Cook will get his golden parachute, but will the next CEO prop the company up or be another Melissa Mayer?
Seriously.
Cash is less traceable and causes you to spend less than non-cash alternatives.
Apples are great to eat and make hard cider with. I recommend ice cider, it's yummy.
Not the computer firm that has become Evil. That Apple is Rotten.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
As much as Apple loves to kill off something that really shouldn't be killed, cash won't be killed by them.
Debit/credit cards aimed to do this and STILL failed, yet they think that their added functionality to their phone will change that? Nope.
The only thing Apple is doing a good job of is killing itself.
he's not killing anything. We've got 140 million folks living paycheck to paycheck in this country. Those people don't rely on cash by choice. Word gets around about overdraft fees, gas stations put $100 holds on your debit card and folks don't make enough to get credit cards. The working poor isn't giving up cash anytime soon. Believe me, it's been tried.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
People would be raving about how high tech and awesome it is. Privacy. No need for a device. No need for electricity. No need for an account. Faster. Just lightweight pieces of paper. Wow!
If something is going to replace cash, it will need to better than cash. Right now, nothing comes close.
So he's the Ballmer of Apple? Hard to argue with that thus far.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Attention grabbing headlines of Elon Musk... without the actual thought process behind it. Well done, Timmy!
I guess being a peter puffer like Cocksucker Cook changes your perspective on things.
Sure thing Tim... the cash on your wallet and on Apple's safes perhaps. :P
Just keep going with this stint of minor improvements at high prices with anti consumer stuff for some more years.
Nothing against the company and it's products but every keynote or event from the past couple of years or so I see an increasing number of Apple fans talking about switching to either Android or Microsoft. And on the reverse, every Microsoft event and in several Android phone launches I hear Apple fans thinking about giving a chance to the "dark side".
And yes, I know you, loyal Apple fanboy and Microsoft/Android hater will never switch. But I'm obviously not talking about you.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I have had enough of this twerp Tim Cook trying to tell me what I "need".
Who the fuck does this jerkoff think he is ?
Personally, I'd like to see him have terminal cancer that results in him experiencing the tortures
of the damned before it kills him.
Fuck you, Tim Cook, and fuck your ruining of Apple, you clueless faggot piece of trash.
this man is an idiot.
Wow!
I can pay a cellphone company, and a bank, for the privilege of paying people and paying a premium to use it!
and everything I buy is tracked, and my personal information sold to the highest bidder, so I can pay more for goods and services!
and when the cellphone dies, I can't pay.
Thanks, I'll stick with cash.
Ballmer at least was entertaining. Cooks entitlement makes me want to vomit.
I'm a techy and I work on payment systems, so have access to all the latest and greatest tech (the US is quite backward in this space by comparison), and even I still use cash sometimes. Because sometimes cash is better, and sometimes electronic payments are better. Thinking that you can kill cash because of you stupid app seems extremely naive.
When I was a kid, my dad told me how one day all you'll have to do is convince a computer you have money, and boom! You could be a millionaire.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
So this is why they didn't bother releasing a computer today, but an appliance that makes it easy to sign in and buy your online purchases...
I know now that Apple is completely dead when it comes to pro users. They no longer make workstations. They no longer make the portables that are anything special... And it's even got to a point that their design is BORING when compared to other products.
I was a Mac only guy. I used to be a big time shill and not a fan of Microsoft when I was younger. So what kind of bizzaro world are we in, where Microsoft is now producing nicer looking and better hardware that's hasn't crossed the boring threshold like Apple? And I like Windows 10 better than iOS X, which is also messed up, considering that Windows 8.0 was a massive POS!!!!
Their new MacBook is nothing other than a FUCKING RETAIL TERMINAL. And Tim Cookooo's comment about no cash really drives that home. Apple has really reached a new low, here's hoping they return to the nineties right before Jobs came back... But with no Jobs on the horizon...
And not turning their R&D department into a place that pukes rainbows and is gay for everybody (in the classical definition of gay, not the modern one.)
Start by doing that and see what Apple devs can come up with. Apple has a number of times pushed the boundaries so far it took decades for the consumer demand to catch up. JobsV2 (The return) managed to market that at the right time, but the true loss from his departure has been the lack of boundary pushing apple should have been doing while they are in a cash glut. Don't waste it, but figure out how they can leverage it to push boundaries, and especially get others to push boundaries on their own dimes (sort of like the Sapphire screen debacle, which worked out well enough for Apple in purchasing the factories on discount.)
Another example is apple could have easily purchased ARM instead of that japanese company that did, which would have allowed them to earn steady income off the millions of devices being produced worldwide.
As a final comment: Cook, if you're going to pretend privacy is important to you regarding the iPhone encryption, you cannot then turn around and say you will kill the primary form of pseudo-anonymous payment that people might wish to use to keep details of their purchasing habits private (whatever socially unacceptable behavior that may entail, from drinks, otaku hobbies, homosexual magazines/toys/etc, 'straight' toys in relgiously conservative areas, etc.) Providing a complete log of those transactions in the same way credit cards, checks, or bitcoin addresses allow is not respecting individual privacy in any form one can consider conscionable.
No internet means shops can't perform EFTPOS. No electricity means no cash register or automatic inventory management: In fact, most shops close without electricity because there is also no lighting or climate control. Now you want battery-driven money; another point of failure. Imagine the looting that would occur in a natural disaster just because there was no physical medium of exchange. There's much to be said for a kerosene lantern and printed money: Assuming this electrickery stuff (and digital network) is always around, is a dumb idea.
Anyone who does not want cash any more can just send it to me. Then I can live comfortably when we transition further to smaller CGA based local economies.
CGA = Cash/Grass/Ass, of course.
This space unintentionally left blank.
As a stockholder, I am prone to agree. I feel like it's John Scully all over again. But this time there is no Steve waiting in the wings to save us.
If cash ends, a core part of the (inter)national drug wars will also end. In turn, this would probably kill the drug wars completely. Government wants this. Right ? ? ?
casino use will be billed at advance rates vs just the basic rate for other usages and look out do to the way some toll road and citys have there billing setup changes may be billed at government cash advance rates.
The problem isn't cash, it's an arrogant company trying to make a nation's currency into its own walled garden.
First, schoolchildren aren't allowed to do that, so no more discretionary shopping by them. I remember Oprah rather stupidly asking why an online shop was selling children's clothes to 40 year-old men. Screaming "please think of the children" tends to produce a worse outcome but it is needed in this case.
Second, many vendors, mostly the criminal sort, don't want a record of where their cash came from, for the benefit of repeat business: Criminals should still be paying income tax. Even honest people don't want to be filing forms on why they suddenly have $3,000 cash. eg. They sold an unregistered car or boat, won a raffle or received a gift (tax-free income in some countries), received an inheritance, or borrowed from a money-lender.
While I'm sure Apple execs dream of a world where every person on Earth is paying them licensing fees to use Apple pay, most people living in the real world do not want their fingerprint associated with their bank account. Most of those fingerprint scanners can be easily bypassed. And I certainly don't want crooked FBI agents invading a building I'm in and demanding that everyone use their fingerprint to open their bank account so they can "examine" (siphon) it.
Besides, cash is still almost universally accepted everywhere. I shop at many stores that have never even heard of Apple pay.
It's not rare something happens that knocks electricity out, or kills your internet connection. How you gonna buy bottled water, canned soup, and ammo at the corner store when your credit card or smartphone app won't work, and you don't have cash? I guess you can use some of that ammo you already have to get the water and soup, but I'm guessing that will cause other problems down the road.
I usually have between $100-$200 cash on me. When it drops to $100 I hit the ATM to get back to $200.
Then again, I'm old. YMMV, and unless you're brown and mowing it stay off my lawn.
The Steve Ballmer of Apple.
It was a no brainer since a large share of their user base was wanting a phone with a larger screen. They ended up with a pretty decent implementation to handle the different screen sizes and resolutions from a developers perspective.
There's two things that I hated about their implementation though. The first is that they are installing better features in the bigger phones. I think that they should have all the sizes equivalent in feature sets and the only difference be the display size (and possibly battery life due to the amount of battery in each size). The second, and biggest problem, I had was that they got rid of the 4" phone only to bring one back later on with even a smaller feature set. People buy a smaller phone, tablet, or laptop because that's the size that works for them. They don't want a device crippled by having features missing. (Yes, I do realize that sometimes that people but the smaller device because they can't afford the larger one.)
I can't remember why Jobs didn't like the larger phone so you could be right in that statement. But we would be seeing Apple in the state it is in now if Jobs was still around. There would be updates to the desktops. Apple apps would not be the piles of crap that they are (compare Music now to the one in iOS 7).
I like to carry around a bit of cash.
Not everyone accepts electronic payments.
Not everyone likes paying the electronic payment fees for parking and other small expenses either.
He was just telling the FBI that privacy was vitally important when the feds asked him to open iPhones up to hacking.
Doesn't "killing cash" also kill privacy?
Is Tim Cook a privacy guy or not?
I guess he is all in for privacy only when it benefits Apple.
A few days back I was driving from Baltimore to the border of New Jersey and New York...a lot of Pennsylvania with Trump and Gary Johnson signs to cross.
On way back I stopped for gas. It was a rural Pennsylvania gas station on US-30. The only purchase I did the whole day was a pint of chocolate milk from the gas station. A brand I had not heard before, local to Pennsylvania. I paid cash $1.13.
Today I am seeing a "suggested post" on Facebook - organic milk of the same brand!
I don't use Facebook on phone. My phone has no data plan.
But Facebook found out I bought chocolate milk!
They know a purchase of chocolate milk from the gas station as the cashier had to scan the item. From the cellphone tower records (a T-Mobile prepaid connection) they narrowed down the choice. I was in the area when the purchase was made.
T-Mobile would have saved the pre-paid account activation IP, which Facebook knows too which I use to browse. They know the SIM was at the gas station.
The moral of the story...they are going to track and infiltrate whether you use cash or coins!
Tat Tvam Asi
That is wtf my atm card is for.
No Jobs, no Apple. Simple as that.
I'm not quite ready to go short on them but it's coming.
Should an economy or bank fail, then having cash is important. It can't be replaced.
Further for most of us, including the tech savvy, digital transactions are the pain. With all the legal obstructions, bank & broker fees, delays, the inability to transfer between providers, etc, etc. Its annoying and expensive.
Better than Apple Pay, since Apple Pay doesn't give me cash back.
As a stockholder, I am prone to agree. I feel like it's John Scully all over again. But this time there is no Steve waiting in the wings to save us.
They'll make AI Steve to save the day.
n/t
No way will I ever use a phone to pay anything. One day you will find out why and on that day you will become a bit smarter.
On the other hand, no merchant can refuse cash. They can ALL refuse any other form of payment but legal tender can not be refused with only a few exceptions, such as large bills.
Timmy says we all hate to carry cash, which is an opinion shared with his closet friends. I love cash. I love the art work, the feel of it. I carry anywhere from $200-$800 with me and I don't have a problem with that whether I lost it or not.
Answer this question. Living in New York, do you walk the streets without cash? When the mugger doesn't get any cash, what do they do to you? Ask Timmy to ask his NY friends on that subject.
"We're going to kill cash," he said. "Nobody likes to carry around cash."
"We're going to kill anonymous transactions," he said. "Nobody likes anonymity."
That's what he essentially said. Anyone wonder why Apple sales are faltering?
"We're going to kill cash," said.Tim Cook. "Nobody likes to carry around cash."
"So what we're going to do is open special 'Cash Exchange Bars' at all our Apple stores where people can come in and swap their old cash for brand new Apple products. What's more, we're making a commitment to keep our Cash Exchange Bars open until no-one has any cash left and the scourge of paper money has been eliminated from society."
So that you can be more closely monitored. All the great tech companies betray us. Even people like you, just think- what engineer would help develop all these things that will spy on the people? Hardware or software. Traitors to humanity.
And especially make sure it dosnt go to any charities hahahaha. :(
It's a fact. Rich people don't have a clue what "the people" want. You're not gonna replace cold hard cash with a piece of shit technology, so fuck off.
I'm going to just plug in my headphones and drown out the noise. Oh.... dang it...
Now if you live in a country where, for example, homosexuality is illegal, and you want to go to a "gay bar" you can't, because no cash means no way to anonymously pay for your drink.
The same goes for many other areas where people have opinions that may be illegal but not morally wrong.Cash is essential there.
...from my cold dead fingers.
...does not require batteries!!!!
I've always been a nobody. Nice to get it confirmed.
Central banks are going down the rabbit hole of negative interest rates and you can't do that as long as people can store wealth in cash. It's a monetary experiment that will go very wrong - just look at the enormous distortions it's causing now, taking income from savers and encouraging rabid risk taking.
.. so, instead of carrying a few dollar bills around, you can carry a 15" MacBook Pro everywhere.
Better yet, you won't have any cash left to spend.
"He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." - Revelation 13:16-17
No, I am not saying that Tim Cook is the Antichrist or any nonsense like that. However, anyone who says something like "We're going to kill cash" is working toward the mark of the beast, whether they realize it or not. I hear statements and plans like that from time to time from technologists and bankers. Regardless of your opinion on Christianity or the Bible, the thought of a world where all financial transactions of any kind are authorized, logged, and tracked by a centralized entity should give you cause for concern for what should be obvious reasons.
Living in Norway I hardly ever have cash. I pay most things with debit or credit cards. If I need to transfer cash to a family member, friend or acquaintance I send it instantaneously via an app directly to their account.
I find it annoying when someone wants to give me cash. Recently sold a couple of desks and both buyers suggested and did an instant transfer via app.
Tim, I'd like to cash out please.
You missed the point of the story. CEO Tim Cook is an idiot.
Apple's standard lead time for a hardware device from commencement through design and prototyping and production to launch is 8 years.
You mean it's:
(time since Cook became CEO + 2 years)
i like using cash
1.) I *do* like the concept of cash. And I always like to have some in my pocket. And I bet there are many people like me in that regard.
2.) Killing cash in developing and third world countries isn't going to work anytime soon. And it will be difficult in quite some 1st world countries too, especially those where citizens have learned to distrust Gouvernment and the banks.
3.) If anyone actually does kill cash, it will be Google and not you guys. Sorry.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
To put things in perspective: The problem "It is bothersome to carry all the cash I have" has to be the ultimate first world problem. Seriously! Control question: Can you name one single first world problem that is more ultimate than this?
And secondly, an economic system which allows for a government to spy on every single transaction will be an enormous gift to totalitarian regimes. We as people living in fairly free countries have a responsibility to keep cash as a fully functional alternative and not export such gift to governments violating human rights and persecuting dissidents. Regardless of the lack of "modern" feel to it, the (minor) cost of doing this, or any other reason.
When you are sure of something, you probably are wrong (search for "Unskilled and Unaware of It").
There are a metric crapton of us out here who like to carry cash.
True but there are just as many if not more who don't like to carry cash. I personally don't like using or carrying cash routinely though I like having the ability to use it should the need arise. I don't see any credible circumstance where it would be practical to do away with cash in general.
My distaste for carrying cash actually is more about having to carry a wallet than the cash. I really would rather not have schlep at bunch of plastic cards and bits of paper everywhere I go. I'd rather carry just my smartphone under normal circumstances. It should be possible to use my phone for 99% of what I need a wallet for. I realize there are some logistical problems with replacing the wallet but I think it's achievable.
Thats completely different level of courage
The convenience vs. using a credit/cash card which doesn't depend on batteries, which is both smaller and lighter than a phone, is accepted in many more places than a vendor unique RFID payment "solution," and comes with long established and legally enforced protections against abuse?
A strawman argument. First off the fact that smartphone payments require batteries to work is pretty much a non-problem except in some rare emergency circumstances. We all carry smartphones and they work fine. And in those rare circumstances you can still use cash. Second, if you are using a smartphone for payment you actually are using a credit card with all those same legal protections. Third, the smartphone system is (so far) MORE secure than either cash or direct use of credit cards. Fourth, since I'm likely going to be carrying my smartphone anyway why would it matter which is lighter? Fifth, my wallet is just as awkward and actually less useful to carry as my smartphone. I've used ApplePay and frankly I MUCH prefer it when available to paying with cash 99% of the time. I would happily get rid of my wallet if the functionality could be integrated into my smartphone. I can't say the same in reverse.
There are good reasons to want to carry cash but you didn't enumerate many of them and your arguments against smartphone payment systems are just nonsense. Good reasons to carry cash? Accepted almost anywhere, doesn't require power, largely anonymous, untraceable, accessible to everyone regardless of credit. Bad parts about cash? Requires a wallet, clumsy to handle especially in large quantities, anonymous, insecure, hard to track spending, untraceable, dirty. You'll note that some of those things are both good and bad features. It has all the good and bad features of any bearer instrument.
Or simply carrying cash, which takes almost no space, weighs next to nothing, and is accepted everywhere?
Umm, what? Cash takes up a substantial amounts of space especially if you carry any significant value of it and it requires you to carry a wallet to keep it in. My wallet takes up roughly the amount of physical space as my cell phone. I would be delighted to get rid of my wallet in favor of using a smartphone most of the time.
Cash is amazingly INconvenient.
Fixed that for you you. I hate dealing with and carrying cash. It's a huge pain in the ass 99% of the time.
"We're going to kill tax," he said. "Nobody likes to pay their taxes."
Cards that get input into the electronic device so I can try to use that in place of the card? Well, it's better than writing a check, but is otherwise completely unappealing.
So you are saying you haven't tried it. I have and you should give it an honest try. At the risk of sounding like a fanboi, ApplePay is easily the most convenient means of paying I've used and I now use it whenever I can. Easier and faster than cash and WAY better than swiping a CC. No (dirty) change, no signature required (usually), more secure than a plain CC, I don't have to give my ID to the store clerk, and I don't need a wallet. It works smoothly and quickly. I'm not always a fan of Apple's products but they hit the mark with ApplePay.
Now I'm NOT bashing cash. Cash is super useful sometimes and I think it's a vital financial tool, especially in certain circumstances like emergencies. But Apple and Google's smartphone payment systems are excellent and underutilized. I think Tim Cook targeting cash is missing the mark. What he should be targeting is replacing the need for a wallet. I sometimes need cash but I could happily do without having to carry a wallet 99% of the time. There is no reason my smartphone couldn't also serve as my wallet, insurance cards, credit card, driver's license, library card, etc. We could still have plastic cards and cash for when we need them but why do I need to carry them with me all the time? Makes no sense.
Anyone who still uses checks is just an idiot who is unwilling to grow up and join the 21st century. Why checks are still a thing absolutely baffles me.
from my cold, dead hands.
Cash is king and all attempts to eradicate it are doomed to fail.
Cash is for people who travel and don't trust all the places they may get gas or a snack.
Do you trust that boiled peanut vendor? or the 24/7 for some coffee?
You can run across skimmers or waiters that take you card info anywhere.
Will you hand over your phone and pin at the Posh restaurant you are buying dinner for a client at?
or will you have to leave the table to pay? or drag the reader to your table?
Tim is a left coast loon that thinks the whole world lives in a modern city (or wants to)
Apple isn't going to kill cash with ...
1. A Market share that fluctuates between 40% to 60% market share from generation to generation.
2. People who still use terms like "Davenport" and "Ice Box"
3. People who still use flip phones.
4. Anyone who doesn't want to be tracked.
I know several people who refuse to have cellular devices or bank cards because they would rather pay their bills in cash, or by converting cash into a money order and sending it.
As for digital payment services for brick-and-mortar stores, the only one I have ever liked was tied to the store's POS system, and didn't require me to screw around with my phone at the checkout to pay. I just put my finger on a reader, entered a pin, and used one of the payment methods I had previously stored in their system.
Make America grate again!
"We're going to kill cash," he said. "Nobody likes to carry around cash." Got $800 just lying around? Buy an iPhone 7. $25 in your pocket you don't need? Buy our charging dongle! Don't you just hate having spare cash?
To laugh their behinds off all while charging you to take care of your electronic cash, in Denmark bank bosses are publicly advocating that consumers are going to pay money to have money in the bank.... Wake up and stop these maniacs who would love to keep you as good little slaves without control of your own finances, one ought even to consider killing fiat and go pure metal to counter this assault on your freedom
I prefer my privacy. Cash is King.
I've stopped carrying cash ages ago. Over here, pretty much everything you buy can be paid for by plastic. The notable exception used to be the one man shops and the local market, but even there you can pay with plastic these days. I fully embraced paying with plastic long ago, and never looked back.
Even Iran would only accept cash.
Most restaurants and stores around the Apple HQ do *not* take ApplePay. Though they all take credit cards and cash.
Why not start small and just try to kill the penny?
Founder, Americans Allied Against Alliteration
I can go for several months at a time and never touch cash. The debit card is a great solution. And you can bet your last dime that criminals will hate a cashless society. At a certain point it will be almost impossible to get away with many common crimes. Imagine trying to sell a stolen car. Without an electronic record of where you purchased the car it is going to be so easy to catch you. And if you happen to get into a car wreck the amount of alcohol you purchased in the hours leading up to the wreck will pop up easily. And with more and better computer systems your car insurance payments can easily be continuously traced so if you are late on a payment the state can lock down your car until you are insured again. And if you are trying to hire a cashier for your business you could know instantly if the applicant is having money issues. The TRUTH will be an interesting change to watch as a certain amount of social discord will certainly result. I knew a wealthy girl who had an expensive and exhaustive background check on any guy that asker her out and she told me how often the guy would give an appearance of being rich while being so far in debt it was a wonder that they could have a pair of shoes. Broke males will go to great lengths to drive an ultra expensive car like a Rolls Royce as their scheme is to marry a very wealthy woman. it was not as if she would reject a poor guy at all. But when they met the guy had better be really candid about his finances and histories. Trying to marry rich can be quite expensive.
If you were really "going to", you would have already, instead of making statements.
I'm imagining the setup to use only Apple Pay at strip clubs. Yes, that's all I'm imagining...
Didn't Johnny Cash die in 2003, and why does Tim Cook want him dead anyway?
I guess it won't be long before all of the Chinese restaurants shutter their doors since no customers will pay cash anymore. Who knew 'Cash Only' payment had such a doomed future? For Tim's prediction to come true, I guess Android Pay will be gone too and Apple Pay will be the king of the hill on every Droid devices. Tim Cook sure knows how to 'cook' his own horse manure.
the banks have too much control over our money already! Mechanics was bought out 51% by a Texan who has fired the 2 heads at my branch. Now there are No Locally Owned Banks in the San Francisco Bay Area! I wonder if there are any in California? search took me to Georgia! :( Time for a New Company!
This is part of the plot to dominate us & take away freedom of choice.
SCREW CR-APPLE! they've gone "Gates" on us
my last two macs have been piece of crap. not like the first ones. I TELL COOK TO SHOVE IT!
taking away a head phone jack is also limiting our freedom
We are fully prepared to trade in Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamonds, and barter.
We will NOT relinquish further controls of our freedoms into the hands of rich and powerful people.
13 years ago...
Ah, yes. Apple will kill cash. Just like it killed command-line interfaces, commodity PCs, feature phones, keyboards, and conventional watches. In the alternate universe where Tim Cook lives.
Apple may have had its first loss-making quarter of the century, but it's still at the top of the bullshit sector.
You a big dummy
I thought the headline referred to the insanely high prices that would relieve everyone of cash!
With every passing week I grow more convinced that Cook will prove to be as bad for Apple as Balmer was for MS.
Let's take some of Tim Cook's cash to Tijuana and pour it out of windows into a busy street and see how they feel about apple pay.
crap software can easily be overcome with marketing.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Apple kills the audio jack. Courage!
Apple kills the MagSafe port. Courage!
Apple kills cash. Courage!
So much courage in one fragile, inspiring human being! Never stop dreaming Tim!
The only thing Tim Cook is going to kill is Apple. He's a complete moron.