New announcements from Apple show that in the midst of the new Apple Card rollout, where the company is offering a new titanium card for member wallets, Apple wants these elite cardholders to avoid the kind of ‘Macbeth moment’ that happens when you clean one of these expensive assets the wrong way.
This week, according to CNet, Apple posted warnings on a support page talking about how materials like leather and denim aren’t good for the new card.
Instead, Apple recommends a microfiber cloth with isopropyl alcohol and suggests that Windex just isn’t good enough for the tangible talisman of Apple’s new stab at virtual credit.
As mentioned in analysis of this new Apple program, members don’t really need the physical card at all. The idea of applecart is to offer buyers a way to access capital in a way that doesn’t involve traditional card-based transactions. The physical card is largely to impress friends and family, or whoever else sees you pull it out of your wallet.
If all of the smacks of hipsterism, consider that Apple Card really has been promoted as a cardless technology first and foremost: Since being announced March 25 of this year at an Apple Special Event, Apple Card has been getting attention for its dynamic one-time transaction security numbers, a cash-back reward program called Daily Cash, and other innovative features. The card, again, is really just an afterthought, though an impressive one.
“Whether you buy things with Apple Pay or with the laser‑etched titanium card, Apple Card can do things no other credit card can do,” write Apple marketers, citing spending transparency, messaging functionality and more. “Apple Card lives on your iPhone, in the Wallet app. And that makes all kinds of new things possible.”
Look for more as release approaches. Tomorrow’s future is likely built on cardless transactions, but for now, the titanium card represents a top-tier version of “the card in your wallet.”
