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Topic: Apple

Cards for iOS puts Apple in the snail mail biz; pits it against American Greetings and Hallmark

Summary: The Cards iOS app lets you create and mail personalized greeting cards directly from your iPhone or iPod touch -- and it's putting fear into the hearts of American Greetings and Hallmark as a result.

Jason D. O'Grady

By for The Apple Core |

Remember iCards, the free online greeting cards that Apple once offered via MobileMe? Well forget all that newfangled digital stuff, Apple's going into the printing and postage business. As part of its parade of apps, Apple has released its vaunted Cards app for iOS (App Store, free).

Cards allows you to easily create and mail personalized greeting cards with your own text and photos, directly from your iPhone or iPod touch. Simply take a photo and create a beautiful letterpress card with a few taps and swipes. The best part is that Apple will print and mail (as in postal) a card to any U.S. address for $2.99 and any foreign address for $4.99 -- including postage.

The Cards iOS app is so compelling that American Greetings Corp.'s (NYSE:AM) stock dropped by as much as 10 percent on Tuesday afternoon after Apple announced it. It's unclear how the Cards announcement affected Hallmark Cards, Inc. as that company is privately held. One thing's for sure though, it sure beats shopping for a boring, generic card in your local drug store.

cards-ios-app-ogrady

Topics: Apple, Mobile OS

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24 comments
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  • Move along, nothing to see

    Just Apple laying waste to more companies.

    I, for one, welcome our new overlord.

    "The Cards iOS app is so compelling that American Greetings Corp.???s (NYSE:AM) stock dropped by as much as 10 percent on Tuesday afternoon after Apple announced it."
    toddybottom
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Cards for iOS puts Apple in the snail mail biz; pits it against American Greetings and Hallmark

      @toddybottom

      I fully agree. We should always have competition; therefore, Apple shouldn't be allowed to get into any new business.
      msalzberg
      Reply Vote

      • We should always have competition

        @msalzberg
        Glad we agree on that.
        toddybottom
        Reply Vote

      • The funny thing about competition ...

        @msalzberg ... is that sometimes, someone (like Apple) comes along with an idea that makes better sense than the one we have now.

        Competition improves the breed.

        There's nothing that says Hallmark or American Greetings can't create their own apps and set up printing and distribution to handle them as Apple has done. But the two major card co's have -- thus far -- chosen not to.

        Unfortunately, now they're behind the 8-ball, and that's not often a good place to be. But perhaps they could come up with a better plan: they could allow you to pick from any of their gazillion existing cards, create a custom card (like Apple), and perhaps their printing and distribution could be through their local stores, where they could drastically reduce shipping times down to a day, since the cards could be printed and mailed right in the destination city. That would even help keep all their chain stores open.

        Disruptive technology can really shake things up.
        jscott69
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Cards for iOS puts Apple in the snail mail biz; pits it against American Greetings and Hallmark

    If someone sent me that I would delete it immediately. Cards are personal and so they better come snailmail with a hand written note and signature.
    LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222
    Reply Vote

    • Delete it by how? Burn? Trashcan?

      @LoverockDavidson_

      You do realize this is a snailmail only service?
      Bruizer
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Cards for iOS puts Apple in the snail mail biz; pits it against American Greetings and Hallmark

        @Bruizer
        No I didn't realize that.
        LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222
        Reply Vote

    • Don't be blinded by your bias.

      @LoverockDavidson_

      "Apple will print and mail (as in postal) a card to any U.S. address."
      msalzberg
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Cards for iOS puts Apple in the snail mail biz; pits it against American Greetings and Hallmark

        @msalzberg
        I must have overlooked that part.
        LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Cards for iOS puts Apple in the snail mail biz; pits it against American Greetings and Hallmark

        @LoverockDavidson_

        It was mentioned in the second sentence, and then mentioned again [i]and italicized[/i] five sentences later. Easy to overlook.
        msalzberg
        Reply Vote

    • Glad I'm not related to you then

      @LoverockDavidson_
      Writing is too flaming painful!
      Laraine Anne Barker
      Reply Vote

  • This is brilliant.

    For a while, online greetings cards were interesting, but when they became synonymous with trojans, they fell out of favor. My spam blocker doesn't even let them through anymore.

    But a card that you create online and send through the mail is perfect. No security issues, and the recipient gets something they can keep (I have all my birthday cards since I was one year old).

    The greeting card companies were already dealing with a drop-off in business anyway, and competition from Chinese knockoffs sold in dollar stores. This is not good news for them unless they develop their own apps pronto.
    terry flores
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Cards for iOS puts Apple in the snail mail biz; pits it against American Greetings and Hallmark

      @terry flores
      Yeah, I don't really buy the idea that Apple making an app means that suddenly an entire industry is wiped out....
      Doctor Demento
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Cards for iOS puts Apple in the snail mail biz; pits it against American Greetings and Hallmark

        @Doctor Demento - Wiped out? No. There are many scenarios that still favor physical purchases, like the last-minute card pickup. But the additional loss of revenue can further endanger their profit margins.
        terry flores
        Reply Vote

    • Will Apple allow this?

      @terry flores <br>"This is not good news for them unless they develop their own apps pronto."<br><br>Here is the problem though: Apple probably won't allow their apps into the iTunes ecosystem. Without access to the iTunes ecosystem, their apps will die a painful death. Apple is able to leverage their music and video ecosystem to kill the competition in totally unrelated markets. This is strictly forbidden.
      toddybottom
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Cards for iOS puts Apple in the snail mail biz; pits it against American Greetings and Hallmark

        @toddybottom<br><br>Why would Apple block them? You don't see Apple blocking any other competitors to their iTunes services so why would they block greeting card companies? Rhapsody, Napster, Spodify, Nook, Amazon Kindle....many competitors offer competing apps and services in the App Store. Hallmark already offers a couple of their apps. You can find a couple other eCard apps in there. Nothing's stopping them from offering the same service as Apple.
        dave95.
        Reply Vote

  • Re: C2 PC tournament! EverythingFPS: Server settings update!

    http://itshrunk.com/7e7cac ....
    good to visit
    sdghkiehj
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Cards for iOS puts Apple in the snail mail biz; pits it against American Greetings and Hallmark

    Sadly I don't see any other company of Apple's stature offering such a service to their users. I can't imagine them getting much revenue out of it (?) but yet they continue to offer it to their users.

    Hallmark still have a solid brand name. They can choose to seat back and watch Apple become a threat, in their space. Or they can follow suite with their own service in the app store, leveraging their strong brand. Just make sure Apple gets their 30% cut :)
    dave95.
    Reply Vote

  • Why - only a very small percentage of humans own iPads / iPods...

    I cry FUD ...

    My brothers and most of my non-industry friends don't own i-devices. When they want to send a card, they go to the store, buy one, sign it, stamp it, and mail it.

    While we, the tech elite,might want to believe that we "are" the world, we're really still a very small minority.
    Timpraetor
    Reply Vote

    • Excellent point.

      @Timpraetor So, perhaps this should be a wake-up call to Hallmark and American Greetings to drastically improve their web services and offer custom-printed & (snail-) mailed cards. And they can even create an Android and Windows Phone version.
      jscott69
      Reply Vote
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