Tim Cook visits Blinkist, wants Apple Card everywhere

On his visit to Germany, Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed he hopes to extend Apple Card internationally but warned that the need to gain regulatory approval may slow things down a little bit.

Apple is working on Apple Card for the rest of us

Cook is in Munich, Germany visiting developers and Apple team members. During his visit he found time to sit down to chat with Bild, discussing services, the iPhone 11 and Apple Card.

“We want to offer the card anywhere,” he said according to Google translate.

The problem is that achieving this requires negotiations on a country by country basis, because banking regulation is different in different nations.

It’s nice to know Apple wants to deliver an Apple Card for the rest of us.

Let’s drink to it!

Prost from Oktoberfest! It’s great to be in Munich! 🍺🎡🥨 pic.twitter.com/vu7cciKPj9

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) September 29, 2019

The truth of course is that Apple is already working to deliver Apple Card to international markets, as Bloomberg claimed in June.: “Apple has began discussing an expansion into Europe with financial regulators,” a person familiar with the talks said at the time.

As a guide, it took Apple a couple of years to reach a series of national deals in order to offer iTunes Store music sales outside the U.S., though achieving this was arguably much more complex.

The latter required reaching deals with labels, publishers, music rights and licensing, copyright and government bodies. Compared to which, achieving financial regulatory approval should be a walk in the park. Possibly.

While in BMW’s hometown, Cook also spoke with the developers behind Algoriddim, and spent quality time with one of Apple’s teams involved in silicon development, before popping to Berlin to visit Blinkist.

Impressed with the growing and talented team at @Blinkist. Helping everyone understand and experience some of the best non-fiction books is a great example of how a single idea from college can evolve into a solution for a problem we all share — too little time! pic.twitter.com/8rRrms7BMY

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) September 30, 2019

Up next:

In the background, it is hard to ignore that Munich is also where several hundred modem development employees currently working for Intel and soon to join Apple are based.

(Apple already has an existing team in Bavaria, as Cook explains here:)

Among the many things our Bavarian Design Center team works on are the silicon chips that improve battery life. Thanks to our teams here in Munich for their superb engineering and attention to detail. Macht weiter so mit Euer großartigen Arbeit! 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/JZT0vVCdTb

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) September 30, 2019

As previously reported, Apple is acquiring Intel’s modem business in a $1 billion transaction that is expected to close at the end of Q4 2019, subject to regulatory approval.

If that deal is about to complete, then the cost of a couple of beers and a chance for a bit of traditional Schuhplattler seems a pretty small additional investment…

Apple’s stock is up 2.42% today at time of writing.

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