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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'.
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.
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).
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
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.
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.
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.
Because it takes courage to give up anonymity.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
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.
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.
Interesting take and background on this idea, and some why it's a bad idea: http://thelongandshort.org/soc...
Don't forget full size USB ports, DisplayPort, and HDMI connectors!
One thing that Apple certainly isn't killing: adapter cables.
So you're the asshole holding up the line while you pay with a card!! Three cash transactions can be done in the time it takes for you to use your slow-ass method.
And I know a lot of people who carry cash and own Apple products. My guess is that most of them make considerably more money than you do.
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.
You forgot #4 - Apple themselves! Paypal and Amazon already killed cash for me. Oh.. and that Visa/Mastercard thing... I carry $10, mostly when I need tip money. How about killing taxes.. oh.. Apple did that already!!! Revolutionary? Yawn
Time for a new Political party in the US (or two!) One is off the rails Other cant pony up a leader.
Three cash transactions can be done in the time it takes for you to use your slow-ass method.
I don't know where you shop for groceries, but where I live the "slow-ass method" consists of: Slide card into reader, enter PIN, wait for cashier to finish ringing everything up, hit OK, remove card.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
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.
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.
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.
About 90% of all shipments are Android, iOS is down around 10%. Seems to be working fine so far.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
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.
A booming business for molded plastic strain reliefs. That's for certain.
I assume that's a "We, and we alone..."
(why open the door to those other competing payment methods).
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.
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.
Apple shipments always follow this pattern. As shown by your graphic. New hardware sells well, > 6 months, not so well. It finally slows to a crawl just before the new release right as Apple haters are proclaiming this is the end for Apple. If they would release twice a year they'd stop getting so slow just before the new stuff.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
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! --
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/
Is the USA really so technologically backward that this is an actual problem? You know that in non-third world countries using electronic payments is much quicker and more reliable than folding paper, right?
I guess there's always room for one more colour change.
So he's the Ballmer of Apple? Hard to argue with that thus far.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Yes, sometimes Android only enjoys a 3.5:1 ratio of sales; most of the time it's about 6:1 though...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Literally, I'll not be able to buy food after Apple kills cash. Then I'll die.
You'll still be able to buy apples with cash. Unless Apple has the courage to abandon an obsolete, thousand-year-old technology, and refuses to accept cash for their products.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
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.
Profits.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 cashless system could easily stop individuals from any purchase deemed unsuitable or unnecessary. Do you want that?
What a boon to those who wish to make healthy lifestyle choices the only available choice! "I'm sorry Sir, that Mt. Dew purchase has been declined by the payment system as your BMI data shared from Obamacare insurers disqualifies you from softdrinks."
NYC would *love* this!
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
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
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.
"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."
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.
.. 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.
Until it does not work due to a networks error
Do you really think merchants don't have manual backup for the extremely rare occasions when that happens?
or you forgot your pin.
So you can't remember a 4-digit number? Must suck to be you.
Also, you are a bit of an arse if you use your card on anything less than 5 bucks these days.
And why is that, exactly?
FWIW, I usually carry the equivalent of US$20-30, and use it for little things like a takeaway lattè. But plenty of people here just use their card for that sort of thing, and I do, too, if I happen not to have cash. And nobody so much as blinks at that. Which leads us back to the question above--why should they?
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
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)
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.
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.
..and the paid off home mortgage is the status symbol of choice.
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?
"Damn, I forgot to go to the ATM."
"Oh, shit--I left my wallet at home."
But do go on.
BTW, the debit-or-credit thing is limited to Australia AFAIK. European card readers don't have this issue.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
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.
I'm imagining the setup to use only Apple Pay at strip clubs. Yes, that's all I'm imagining...
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.
Where I live you just hold your card in front of the reader for half a second.
No sliding, no PIN, not much wait. Definitely faster than counting out change in cash.
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.
I thought the headline referred to the insanely high prices that would relieve everyone of cash!
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.