This sounds like a tiny niche market of consumers that are inclined to juggle a bunch of credit cards (ie, not a mass market problem). It is far more common than you suggest (ask around and see how many people you know carry at least two rewards-earning cards), but the potential isn't in how many people currently benefit from optimized rewards, but how many would be doing it if the effort needed became trivial. Apple could make it trivial, but so could a lot of others. And no one would have a monopoly on it.
Is there an existing wallet/payment service that purports to do this for the consumer in an automated fashion? What's the uptake like? Not that I know of, but I have a business venture in the works that moves in this direction. When someone learns they are passing up a few thousand dollars per year, they tend to jump onboard quickly.
Apple may not be interested in making money with their payments system. It would be right in line with their business model to run a useful service only to make their devices more attractive. I agree, and even if they wanted to be profitable with it., I'd put the odds that they would be in the single digits at best. I think they could announce a card-optimizing app via NFC that consumers would love, and if they do, that will certainly help their hardware appeal more. But if they announce something short of this, I think it will be a drain on earnings. |
