The official launch of the Apple Card ratcheted up the pressure on banks and fintechs as the fear of big tech getting in financial services is beginning to be realized; “We want to take the Apple Pay experience further to another fundamental method of payment,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the event as reported by American Banker. “We envision a future in which every payment is made this way.”; the card helps to bind the various apple experiences together and is core to their strategy; the card also bundles instant issuance, loyalty, accounts, p2p transfers, mobile payments and personal financial management as part of the same experience; “It is to banking what the iPod was to the music industry, what the iPhone was to wireless carriers and iPads were to the laptop industry, or what Uber is to taxis,” Heidi Liebenguth, a payments consultant with Crone Consulting, explained to American Banker.