In a post titled “Great since day one“, Marco Arment blogs about what makes the iPhone different – in essence he writes that Apple makes products that are great today. Android isn’t.

Reading his post brought to mind the fragmented nature of the card payments ecosystem that we live in – and how it’s so difficult to innovate in a way that provides an easy, simple and complete consumer experience.

Isn’t that the weak underbelly of today’s card payments acceptance environment? The fragmented nature of it – merchants having to deal with acquirers, struggling with PCI-DSS compliance, etc. Issuers who can’t influence the acceptance environment – yet are dependent upon it.

Problems like these create new opportunities – for those bold enough to pursue them. Yet the incumbents continue with their “business as usual” strategies.

Where are the smart new entrants – eager to disrupt? One thing’s almost certain – they’re out there working hard and they’ll soon surprise us – then, we’ll say: “Of course!”