Apple’s Card App Compared To Hallmark and Others

Just recently I tried the Apple Card App (letter press) to send a last minute card to the other half. Along the way I found out that postage times are 5 – 15 working days and there’s no tracking or even an e-mail to say it’s on the way. You do get an invoice near to when it’s being delivered but still, like a lot of things Apple, it’s missing a few features but we still use it.

Well after a bit of waiting the card arrived and it’s not too bad if a little small. The card quality is very high and comes embossed not just cheap style printing on paper. Speaking of which the paper is high quality rag paper. Thankfully the other half knows what a gadget geek I am and with the added bonus she appreciated the nerdy way of going from iPhone to door. Even though I was (or Apple was) late getting the card, she was very impressed.

A sample card from the Apple Card App

I only just discovered that you can do all this and more withiPhoto on my Mac, and never realized that you can send cards from iPhoto. The prices and process are the same, but their are many more options for cards. There is also a video showing the card quality, and how they are produced. Since photos from iPhoto would normally be much higher resolution than iPhone photos, and the options and control are much better, I probably will use iPhoto in the future to do this.

So what price are we really paying for the ease of use to send a card with our beloved iPhones?  The festive season is nearing so I decided to do a quick visit to some of the UK’s better known card sites and compare them.  The mission is simple, find a template similar to the one’s on the app, upload a picture, select the size and compare the price.

Up first is Hallmark.com.  The above plan immediately hit a road block where trying to do the basics presented with this lovely screen.

Seems that I can’t do a card unless I freaking install Java.  Of all the cock eyed, useless frustrating web experiences and it’s all down to Java.  Thankfully hallmark’s site was the only one to present this issue and we continued onward.

Onto FunkyPidgeon.com.  Remember that its a simple and somewhat subtle template we are after, not some gawd awful gaudy, x-factor, cheese tactic template.  Finding a simple template took a bit of time and in the end it was easier to go with a blank card and uploaded a picture.  Uploading a picture was painless as was putting text onto the back and inside of the card.

Where FunkyPidgeon.com wins is the price and delivery times.  2.99 for an A5 card with free 1st class delivery which takes the guesswork out of sending a card, especially if, like me, you tend to forget things till the day before and want something to arrive timely

Apple Vs Hallmark
Winner Apple for not forcing Java on me.

Apple vs FunkyPidgeon.com
Winner. FunkyPidgeon.com whilst it has more templates, most are unbelievably tacky but the pricing isn’t bad at all.

Don’t get me wrong here Apple’s app is a step forward and other companies should have done this well before now.  To my knowledge there aren’t any uk companies embracing smartphones to traverse the virtual to the physical (taking a pic and posting it) and I’m amazed that none have jumped on the bandwaggon.

What I do like from the Apple app is the lack of branding or other fluff to show you went on-line to get a card.  If you spend the time shopping for one least people don’t know how much you paid for it along with the recipient feeling some thoughts gone into it.