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Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'We're Going To Kill Cash' (cnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the killing-cash dept.

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'.

14 of 394 comments (clear)

  1. Sorry, Tim... by sconeu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Sorry, Tim... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Does he really think we all want all of our purchase data tracked and monetized?

      Because no, I don't.

    2. Re: Sorry, Tim... by No+Longer+an+AC · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree. I don't even usually pay in cash and my credit card offers me the luxury of spending way more cash than I would ever like to carry around, but $300 is about right. If for some reason my credit card stops working or I lose it (both of which have happened to me before), $300 should be more than enough to see me through to whenever I can fix it.

      I've lost cash before too, but it's only cash and I can only lose as much as I carry on me.

      I'm sure Tim Cook has a different financial outlook and views on spending than I do. I am down to one credit card. I used to have two, but I never used the other one so the bank refused to renew it. I don't trust debit cards and I'm not going to use my (android) phone to pay so it's credit card or cash. Everybody still takes cash.

      There's a commercial that asks "What's in your wallet?". I'm curious. What's in Tim Cook's wallet? Does he even need a wallet or is there an app for everything from his driver's license to his credit cards. Okay, he doesn't need credit cards because he can use Apple Pay.

      But you can't use Apple Pay everywhere, can you?

      Oh right, the summary says he only makes most of his purchases with Apple Pay.

      I have no idea what Tim Cook is worth, but the idea that someone as rich as he probably is thinks he knows how the common man spends money is laughable.

      And I also bet he keeps some cash on hand, just in case.

    3. Re:Sorry, Tim... by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What do you think happens with credit cards?

      And how is that relevant to the argument that some people do like to carry cash around? If someone is using cash instead of Apple Pay then they are also using cash instead of a credit card.

    4. Re:Sorry, Tim... by msauve · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "People will want this because of the convenience."

      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? Or simply carrying cash, which takes almost no space, weighs next to nothing, and is accepted everywhere?

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    5. Re:Sorry, Tim... by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If I were to use an alternative to cash, it would not be with a company that's going to skim some off of the top, requires using only certain high priced devices, and was Apple. If I don't have the cash then I have the credit card. If I don't have either then I don't actually need to buy the item anyway.

      (Yes they're not charging the users they claim, but they are charging banks and that cost will come back to the consumers in some way.)

    6. Re:Sorry, Tim... by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Cash is amazingly convenient. People only want this because it's Apple and their cult leaders tell them that they want it.

    7. Re:Sorry, Tim... by demonlapin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A few hundred dollars in cash is always a wise idea, for that reason. My dad always told me to keep a $20 bill in my car's trunk as an emergency gas supply - today I'd make that $50-$100, but the principle is the same. When you get in trouble, everyone takes cash.

    8. Re:Sorry, Tim... by rtb61 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It has nothing to do with tracking it has to do with freedom in a capitalist society. With cash in pocket you are free in a capitalist society without cash you are asking permission to exist. You buy nothing without cash, you only ask permission and a distant faceless corporation decides whether to grant you permission to access the essentials of life or starve you to death.

      Capitalism and cash or capitalism must go. I am not going to be a fucking slave to corporations asking 24/7/365 for permission to survive. Cook is an idiot.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    9. Re:Sorry, Tim... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Are you high? Seriously, are you high?

      The government would LOVE to see cash end. You think they need to run an actual printing press to give themselves more money? What, they can't log into the computer and simply add more zeros to their bank account balance?

      Now, with all cash gone, if "they" decide you are a problem, they can simply freeze your bank account. No cash, no way to get around it.

      The end of cash is the end of freedom. Right now the government has no idea how much cash I have. I work side jobs in addition to my main employment. One they know about, one they don't. Side work is almost always cash. Said cash goes in the stash. Don't give me any b.s. about taxes. They get enough from me on the legit work. The side work is perhaps 5% of my yearly income. They don't know and they can go fuck themselves. Cash is freedom. They freeze an account.. I'm not fucked. I still have enough to live on for a while.

  2. Do not want by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Closing the loop on cash transactions is just another way to ensure everything we do is tracked.

  3. There's something else he's going to kill - Apple by JoeyRox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. I agree by ark1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Once you purchase apple devices and accessories, you have no cash left - only debt.

  5. Asinine. by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.