Bill Gates: Apple Pay Is "Fantastic"

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While not everyone is sold on Apple Pay, it would seem that at least Bill Gates is a fan.

Well, Apple Pay's a great example of how a cell phone that identifies its user in a pretty strong way lets you make a transaction that should be very, very inexpensive. So the fact that in any application I can buy something, that's fantastic. The fact I don't need a physical card anymore, I just do that transaction and you're going to be quite sure about who it is on the other end, that is a real contribution.
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Enemy (Apple) of my enemy (Google) is my friend. Plus, Microsoft has a stake in Apple having saved it from bankruptcy in 1997.
 
mi7chy said:
Enemy (Apple) of my enemy (Google) is my friend. Plus, Microsoft has a stake in Apple having saved it from bankruptcy in 1997.
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Dimethyltryptamine said:
Holy shit, I didn't know that, wow! Would not have thought it either. Weird world.
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Except it is false. Yes, Microsoft made a $150 Million Investment in 97. No they do not have that stake...all the shares were sold a decade ago. It's funny because those shares would be worth like $20 Billion now.
 
Grahamkracka said:
Except it is false. Yes, Microsoft made a $150 Million Investment in 97. No they do not have that stake...all the shares were sold a decade ago. It's funny because those shares would be worth like $20 Billion now.
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It's crazy to see how far Apple has come.

In 1997 they needed that $150 million to simply stay in business... but today Apple can make that much money in a little over a day!
 
Microsoft needs Apple because without them, no one else is making a desktop OS to "compete" and Microsoft gets broken up as part of anti-trust regulations or just taken over by the government.
There's a reason MS pumped money into Apple, and that's so they could stay as big as they are. They owned non voting shares in Apple that expired after a set time in order to get Apple back on their feet.
AND...
MS makes Office for Apple, not Android, not Linux, again, to preserve the illusion of competition.
 
Dimethyltryptamine said:
Pumping 150 million into a failing company just to have competition. Man, this world something.
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Its the same reason AMD and Intel share an open patent agreement on X86, if AMD fails, since IBM no longer is in the X86 market, Intel has no competition and is subject to being broken apart under anti-trust legislation.

Besides, MS is worth BILLIONS, so many I cannot begin to fathom, so I'm sure Bill would rather dump 150 mil into "competition" over getting his company taken away by the government, then ripped into pieces.
Pretty sure 150 mil is also pocket change to Gates (his net worth is almost 80 billion), so he could have just loaned out of his personal account if he had wanted.
 
SGA76 said:
MS makes Office for Apple, not Android, not Linux, again, to preserve the illusion of competition.
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Office for Android should be out before the end of this year, before even the touch version for Windows tablets.
 
SGA76 said:
Pretty sure 150 mil is also pocket change to Gates (his net worth is almost 80 billion), so he could have just loaned out of his personal account if he had wanted.
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So is it a fact they made absolutely nothing off the deal? Was the 150 million a total loss? Or did they get the 150 million back but with no interest?
 
There's some kind of looming regulatory thing that'll make merchants liable for fradulent transactions on magnetic swipe credit cards in the US and that's kinda forcing merchants to look into getting new payment equipment. This is like prime time for Apple to get into the phone payment system since lots of merchants don't wanna soak up the equipment costs without incentives from lower transaction fees. Apple is teamed with the big credit vendors (I think) which means that they had to negotiate pretty hard to get those large organizations to agree to share their existing transaction fees with Apple intead of like forcing Apple to charge merchants in addition to the existing credit fees. Honestly, Bill is onto something and the next couple few years are probably the only good window for new payment to take off. If upgrades to transaction equipment happen with only chip-enabled cards, then it's pretty much likely that Apple's system isn't gonna get widespread enough to take off as a payment mechanism.
 
Dimethyltryptamine said:
Holy shit, I didn't know that, wow! Would not have thought it either. Weird world.
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ITs not weird, MS did it to make sure Apple stayed alive or it was going to face more anti-trust problems. It was a shrewd move. It also let them put Office on Mac.
 
heatlesssun said:
And that wouldn't work on an Android phone or tablet.
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So Android is the last to get a version of MS office....
Nice.

I've surfed about and read several articles over Bill Gates loving Apple Pay, and he doesn't love Apple Pay, he loves the NFC OPEN STANDARD Apple is using because with it in iPhones, Android AND Windows phones its more likely to get adopted faster, and since its open, no license fees....
MS always loves when they don't have to steal it.
And Apple can't patent it....
:D
 
I'd be concerned about Apple after the iCloud fiasco especially if my money is tied to it.
 
there's nothing to prevent companies like Google and Microsoft from implementing similarly secure mobile payment platforms of their own in the near future.
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Thank God Apple invented NFC payments :rolleyes:
 
MScrip said:
It's crazy to see how far Apple has come.

In 1997 they needed that $150 million to simply stay in business... but today Apple can make that much money in a little over a day!
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People like to spin that 'investment' as the thing that kept Apple in business. However, it was actually a settlement in the long going GUI lawsuits that were ongoing between Apple and Microsoft since the 80s. Both companies had spent more than they ever was going to get back by that point.
 
Shows you how out of touch Bill Gates and Apple fans are. Nokia had Nokia Money five years ago. Nokia also had NFC phones five years ago. Almost every "new" Apple phone innovation is from an outdated Nokia phone.
 
Spire3660 said:
ITs not weird, MS did it to make sure Apple stayed alive or it was going to face more anti-trust problems. It was a shrewd move. It also let them put Office on Mac.
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There was actually tons of in and outs of the investment in Apple. Microsoft was actually making a good amount of money selling Office, so protecting the market helped.(officer was their main leverage tool at the time) Apple had also learned from their past mistakes and was patenting heavily and threatening to use it. It helped with IE versus Netscape which Microsoft considered a serious rival, as it made IE default browser for Macs. The main negative was they were required to update the Mac version of Office at the same pace as the Windows Version. (cost in R&D but not that much really)

Apple kinda lost out on lawsuit proceeds (150 million(for stock) plus tons of cash behind the scenes made up for that). They gained time as the one thing which could have really hurt them was the games Microsoft was playing with Office as a leverage tool. Losing Office would slow down the platform.

Microsoft basically did not have to worry about more lawsuits from Apple, Apple was given time to make their platform compelling. Apple looks like the winner, but mainly due to Microsoft having trouble when on their own... combined with how limited their dominate position makes them. IT is difficult for them to upgrade the core OS without upsetting someone. Add good tools... which make an OS compelling to buy and they get sued etc. That and the desire to protect the sacred cash cows.
 
From what I was reading, NFC capable phones never caught on. It's prolly because, unlike Apple Pay, merchants hafta not only pay fees to the NFC phone people, but also still hafta pay the same old credit card transaction fees too which makes it not very attractive from a profits kinda perspective even though it's an open standard so that the phone vendors like it. On the other hand, the transaction fees for Apple Pay are the same percent of the purchase with Apple having like negotiated a small portion of the transaction for themselves. I dunno how they did that, but it's actually cheaper for merchants to support Apple Pay. It kinda makes the future look bleak for NFC unless someone makes their own financial institution that can offer less transaction fees which will be hard to do since Visa and MasterCard are already super efficient and cost effective. A competitor would need a huge initial investment and might not be able to survive on competitive rates.
 
BladeVenom said:
Shows you how out of touch Bill Gates and Apple fans are. Nokia had Nokia Money five years ago. Nokia also had NFC phones five years ago. Almost every "new" Apple phone innovation is from an outdated Nokia phone.
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More like it shows you how out of touch the haters are. Who even knows about Nokia Money? Maybe a couple of neck beards, but it obviously never really caught on. It only existed in India and was scrapped in 2012. Also, why does everyone keep trying to say "Apple invented NFC". Nobody said that except for the ones who hate Apple. You guys should read your posts sometimes.
 
xIronCrossx said:
More like it shows you how out of touch the haters are. Who even knows about Nokia Money? Maybe a couple of neck beards, but it obviously never really caught on. It only existed in India and was scrapped in 2012. Also, why does everyone keep trying to say "Apple invented NFC". Nobody said that except for the ones who hate Apple. You guys should read your posts sometimes.
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Its not that we're (or at least I'm) saying Apple is trying to take credit for inventing things, its that Apple comes out with something someone already did, sticks Apple or iSomething on the name and treats it like some new and revolutionary innovation.
Then again, Apple isn't an idea company, they're a marketing company, so maybe if Google or MS stole some of their marketing team we could have some "Fresh, new innovations" coming from them too.
 
xIronCrossx said:
More like it shows you how out of touch the haters are. Who even knows about Nokia Money? Maybe a couple of neck beards, but it obviously never really caught on. It only existed in India and was scrapped in 2012. Also, why does everyone keep trying to say "Apple invented NFC". Nobody said that except for the ones who hate Apple. You guys should read your posts sometimes.
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This.

Also I agree with bill, apple pay is awesome.
 
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