Apple is not new to the Credit Card idea. Ken Segall, former Apple creative director talks about this in his blogpost. He mentions that, Steve Jobs always planned to launch a credit card for iTunes, which basically would work on getting you music for purchasing stuffs using the same card.
Back in those days, Apple was based on their music service iTunes and its dedicated device the iPod. Customers would earn ‘iPoints’ for every purchase which could be used to get free music from iTunes. They had some cool taglines like,
Just like the 2019 Apple Card, Apple worked with MasterCard for this project. The company worked hard to launch this card but failed to do so as Apple could not negotiate the terms it wanted.
Apple announced Apple Card at its March services event with the draw of daily cashback as rewards and it was one of the biggest announcements made by the company over the years. With no hidden tax, the Card is going to be implemented to the Wallet App work with Apple Pay, and for the places not accepting Apple Pay they have a physical card.
You can read everything about this cancelled project in Ken Segall’s blog.