Apple was quietly working on a stock purchasing feature on iPhone, now shelved

Remember the Gamestop short squeeze of 2021? It could be the reason that Apple shelved a feature that would allow you to buy and sell Stocks on the go directly from your iPhone. A report came out just this week on why this may have happened.

Sources told CNBC that the feature would be in collaboration with Goldman Sachs and would add to Apple’s suites of financial apps. Initially, Apple was working on this feature in 2020, when consumer stock trading was at a high. Though it’s a movement founded on criticizing those who benefit most from stocks, the GameStop meme stock situation led many to believe that more passive consumers could enter the market.

In 2021, thousands of online users bet against the crash of GameStop’s stock, something advisers were expected to make a lot of money on.

A volatile situation

According to the report, the stock feature was originally intended to launch in 2022 but was shelved, partially due to the volatility of the market. With inflation and higher rates making it harder to get into stocks and even harder to make any real money, Apple was worried about the backlash if many of their users lost much of their savings to it.

In the same CNBC report, a source said « The infrastructure for an investing feature is mostly built and ready to go should Apple eventually decide to move forward with it. » If the demand is great enough, this feature could return at any point. It is rumored to take advantage of Apple’s own banking apps to allow users to invest directly into certain stocks in intervals.

There are currently many stock trading apps that can be accessed from your iPhone so this feature would directly compete with them. This is not the only mainstream service in talks to implement trading functions, with Elon Musk’s X potentially working alongside eToro to let users invest in stocks. This could mean that ad revenue generated from engagement and subscriptions can be spent directly on the app itself.