Apple Just Wrecked 15+ Startups In Less Than 1 Hour

What would you do if Apple added a feature that made your startup obsolete?

Apple

Tech founders bite their nails before Apple events.

• They don’t care about the new home screens.
• They don’t care about the new erasable messages.
• They don’t care about the new ways you can share your dog photos.

They care about Apple making their business obsolete.

This week was no different.

WWDC made life a whole lot harder for at least 15 startups.

Apple Pay Later

Buy now, pay later. No interest.

You know that feeling when you see something stunning, but you just can’t afford to pay fully right now and you’d really hate to load it onto the credit card?

It’s awful.

• For you, because you have to save up.
• For the business that could have had a sale.

A couple of smart people saw this as a great opportunity for a startup.

The idea goes something like this:

1. You enter an online store.
2. You see something you like.
3. But it costs $499 and you only have $323.87 in your account.
4. But right below the button that says add to cart, there is a line that says that they have a buy now, pay later option.
5. You checkout through that button and they do a quick credit check to let you know you got it. Some pay later providers charge you interest; others don’t.
6. You pay your first $125, get your product and pay the rest later.
7. The pay later provider charges the business a big fat 4–6% commission fee.

It’s a loan, but clever marketers phrase it as buy now, pay later.

Hilarious.

Apple just disrupted this business model at its core by doing what they do best: Simplifying things.