Will this take place in-palimpsest-universe (or in a similar universe), in that small stretch of the next few million years where the colonization ships are able to safely populate the galaxy?
]]>Apple Pay is not a bank, will not become a bank, nor will not become a frontend for a bank system. Payment processing is totally different from banking- not just from a technical perspective, but a legal one as well. Apple likes it this way, because banks still bear the compliance and liability burden. The bottom line is that between Apple Pay analytics, fees, and money made from processing deals with partner financial institutions, Apple doesn't need to be a bank to make money from the Apple Pay product...even discounting the huge margin they make on the physical Apple device that runs it.
Tim Cook went into the cage against the FBI because if the US government gained the legal and technical right to break Apple's encryption, then Apple's vendor relationship with other organizations (many of which value their privacy) would be endangered. Being an official vendor for companies, institutions, and other governments is hugely lucrative, especially when you sell premium products with huge margins and a hugely profitable service model and secondary market to boot. Cook is not trying to defend his chance at being bank president, because it's not the easiest or best way to make money. Apple will be happy when 3 billion people are buying a new iPhone every 2 years, and when all holdout governments demand iPhones, not blackberries.
I build financial products in San Francisco. I don't know anyone here who wants to be a bank. Apple doesn't want to be a bank. No sane tech company wants to deal with the compliance work inherent in operating a multinational financial institution.
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