Apple announces that Apple Card is now available to all iPhone users in the United States, with a 3% cashback offer for Uber and Uber Eats
Apple today announced that Apple Card is available to everyone in the United States from today. To sign up, simply open the Wallet app on your iPhone and begin the application process.
Context & Ripple Effects
Five months after Apple unveiled the Apple Card in March with 3% back on Apple purchases and 2% on Apple Pay, the card moves from invite-only preview to general availability for every US iPhone user via the Wallet app. The new 3% tier on Uber and Uber Eats is the first expansion of the top cashback rate beyond Apple's own storefront.
The rollout lands just before the first hands-on reviews, which flag the card's iOS-only design — no web bill pay, no Android access — as the trade-off for its fee-free structure and daily Wallet deposits.
First-order effects
- Every US iPhone user can now apply for Apple Card in the Wallet app, and Uber and Uber Eats purchases earn the card's top 3% Daily Cash rate, previously reserved for Apple purchases.
Second-order effects
- The iOS-only lock-in documented in the Mashable review becomes the product's moat and its ceiling: Android-using households and merchants' non-Apple customers are structurally excluded from the rewards loop.
- Uber gains a cashback tie-in that steers ride and Eats spending toward Apple Pay, while rival card issuers face pressure to match no-fee, daily-deposit rewards structures.
Third-order effects
- General availability is the base of a services ladder Apple keeps climbing: the Daily Cash rewards stream later feeds an interest-free iPhone installment plan, and by 2023 an Apple Card Savings account at 4.15% — the card evolving from payment instrument into a deposit-holding financial platform inside the iPhone.
The trend: Consumer hardware companies are converting device install bases into financial-services platforms, using cashback rewards and Wallet-native accounts as the retention mechanism.