It was 1945. The world record for the mile stood at 4:01.3, held by one of the great Swedish runners of that generation Gunder Hagg. That was the fastest recorded mile in human history. Naturally there was pressure to break the four minute barrier.
It took 9 years for the record to be broken. John Landy came close in 1952 with 4:02.1 but declared:
So close – yet so far.
May 6th, 1954 Roger Bannister ran the mile in 3:59.4.
He broke the four minute brick wall barrier. He did what many did not think was humanly possible. And 46 days later John Landy, who had said, “I don’t think I can,” ran the mile in 3:57.0
Today Apple announced that they have created an iPhone that is essentially a wallet. It’s a closed payment system that uses something called near-field communications or NFC technology.
According to an article in CU Times this morning:
iTunes users still could use credit cards and banking accounts to fill up their iTunes accounts, but that would be the extent of financial institutions’ involvement in an Apple mobile payment system.
Creating a new payment system would cut out middle men like VISA and MasterCard.
Just last year I heard a now retired CUNA CEO say “We’ve been talking about smart phone technology for years – I still think it’s way off.”
The four minute mile has been broken in the financial industry.
And Steve Jobs just lapped us.
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January 31, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Tim McAlpine
Who knew the sleeper of an iPod / iTunes combo created a decade ago would lead to iWorld – a magical place where you need not go outside (or carry cash or plastic).
People inside the financial world will dismiss this invention just like the extinct record stores and newspapers and the bookstores and the video stories and the…
January 31, 2011 at 4:13 pm
Denise Wymore
This was my biggest fear and also one of my hopes – that someone would iPod banking. Metaphorically speaking.
I thought Jeff Bezos or Tony Hsiesh would do it – cuz they are in the money business already – but Jobs.
We’re doomed.
February 1, 2011 at 8:36 am
Graham
This sounds like fun until someone hacks your accounts by merely walking by you…
February 1, 2011 at 8:42 am
Denise Wymore
Graham,
I thought the same thing – it seems so odd. And yet someone could walk right by you and lift your wallet from your pocket. Is there any truly safe way to pay for things? I mean cash is probably the riskiest – if someone takes your cash you have zero recourse.
With the payments world comes risk and fraud – we accept it or go back to bartering for goods and services I guess.
February 1, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Gene Blishen
I think this brings some truly exciting possibilities.
First those that live like dinosaurs will end up like dinosaurs.
Second I remember when ATMs arrived with the echo in the air that we are going to be a cashless society. So what happened? ATMs become something other than what was originally conceived — and the invention iteration began. That holds true with a lot of things from the technology world. They morph into something else and then again.
Payments is peoples money and Apple will be a channel but it won’t be everyone’s channel. The possibilities are numerous that what we as CUs do in the payments world will be different. The problem is in the CU world a lot of energy is being spent trying to be bigger and bank like. If those energies and resources would be redirected in something like an open source CU payment system where everyone collaborated to have something in common besides platitudes then where do you think we would be?
‘Mirror, mirror on the wall who’s the greatest of them all?” (with apologies to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
February 1, 2011 at 3:07 pm
It’s magic! « Tinfoiling
[…] blog post today does just that. When I began reading it proved interesting from the fact that the 4 […]
February 11, 2011 at 7:38 am
MB
I heard yesterday about the married congressman who took a picture of himself without a shirt and then sent it to a woman he was in contact with through Craigslist. Of course, he got found out, it hit the media and he handed in his resignation.
So, what does this have to do with the new iPhone, you ask?
Once more, someone, often an older man who is in a position of some influence/power, shrugs off/underestimates the power of innovation, new technology and the world of the Internet.
Ignore it at your own risk.
February 21, 2011 at 8:57 am
Credit Unions Make a Run for the Border « The 2020 Vision of Marketing
[…] dont’ think I’ve ever gone three weeks without a blog post. After Steve Jobs broke the four minute mile and lapped us, my mind went into simmer mode. I had some great comments from some very smart […]