That’s contactless payment. Entirely possible without any Apple anything.
A more cynical person might say that one of Apple’s strengths is marketing commoditised capabilities as something special.
The Apple Card is easily the best card I've ever had. Its not just about touch-less payments (which doesn't actually require the Apple Card), it's the way you are notified, legibility of bills, convenience and immediacy of cash back, nicely integrated and payment options plus a bunch of other great features. Notably, Apple was the only card company which notified me in a conspicuous way that I had the option to skip payments during COVID.
Nothing is specifically amazing about the Apple Card, but collectively it's easily the best credit card I've had. The only time I use my other cards at all is when they have significantly better cash back programs. (Amazon card for example)
Your comment is close to the truth though. Apple's strength is in creating polished/ well integrated products. Often those products don't need bleeding edge tech, just someone integrating them better than existing players. The credit card is kind of a classic example. It's not fundamentally different, just a better experience all around.
Yes, I understand this, but if you are already part of the Apple ecosystem it's an excellent integration.
The world moved to chip&pin at least 5 years ago and moved to contactless for small money amounts (<AUD100 <GBP30) at least 3-4 years ago.
Apple & Google's changes for CC are mostly in the tokenization standard, building the backends for issuers.
The Apple Card is a US only need, because the US is stuck on chip&sign and Visa/MC have been unable to force the retailers to replace their ancient POS equipment. Plus big retailers don't like not having access to the full PAN of an account and tracking customers.
Cash back is pretty standard, if not below other rates (I'm not even sure what qualifies as 1 vs 2 vs 3%, seems random). The disputes aren't any easier or harder than I've seen through other apps for different banks.
The graph for expenses looks good, but I've had that with other accounts for years.
It's really not that different other than cash back being right there in the same app
Otherwise it has some nice features, comparable to some of my other cards but more tightly integrated with the phone.