"The app works as a digital store for greeting cards. For $2.99 you can design a card and then have it mailed to your destination of choice. When it arrives, you get a notification letting you know. As intriguing of an idea as that is, it’s not entirely new.
What’s strange is that Hallmark’s own app doesn’t do this already. Instead, the Hallmark app functions more like a store locator. You can find deals and stores with it but you’re not able to design and send your own cards. That’s a big loss for America’s largest greeting card producer.
Of course, the biggest difference between these apps is that Apple is behind Cards. According to a story at Mashable the greeting card industry within the United States brings in an estimated $7.5 billion in sales each year. It’s a safe bet that Apple putting their considerable muscle behind this new-meets-old tech project should tick that number up a bit higher.
Even with all the greeting card and postcard apps hitting our devices, that might not be enough to help an ailing United States Postal Service, anyway. A 2009 story in The Washington Post notes that the 4 billion mailed cards a year account for about 2 percent of the total mail volume in the United States. While 4 billion is a pretty impressive number, 2 percent certainly is not.
So no, Cards may not solve all of our problems, but as someone who actually does remember mailing out an actual letter or two in my day, it makes for an exciting app idea. Here’s hoping it’s executed with the skill Apple is known for. That would be well worth the wait."
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