Why AmEx Has Gotten It Right

I'm not going to lie. I've always been a fan of American Express. It's a great company, a good place to work, they do exciting things, I respect their CEO. They actually do care about their customers as much as they say they do. The cafeteria isn't too terrible. It's a convenient commute from where I like to stay to the 3WFC... the list goes on and on (and, apparently, some of these things are more important than others, but it's funny that this is my list of reasons why I love Amex).

Today, BusinessWeek reported that Amex doesn't really care about mobile payments from a mobile phone. They're gonna give mobile payments through a little piece of plastic that holds all your pertinent information that is so small and light that it can fit into essentially any pocket.

Yeah they're doing it through your credit card. Shocker. The cool part is that they're going to offer you the ability to pay for cabs through membership rewards points that you can accrue through your credit card purchases. Tap 'n' go has always been a very convenient feature with the Amex Blue Cards, so this is an excellent way to capitalize on existing infrastructure. Which brings me to the top points of Amex Being Awesome:

1. Not investing into crazy amounts of new infrastructure when the existing infrastructure will do just fine
2. Tapping into a network that makes sense for day-to-day life. I mean, it's nice that (the now failed) Isis is giving away free Jamba Juices, but I don't need a Jamba Juice. I do need a cab. Especially in New York, I'm going to be using a lot of cabs. 
3. This encourages their members to burn their points in smaller increments (making it seem like less of a hit from a points-monger perspective) but to potentially do it more frequently. This is awesome because it reduces their float allocated to rewards points and increases customer satisfaction ("Hey! Look at how useful my points are! They are a real thing! There isn't a loyalty/reality gap!")
4. And finally, bridging the gap between the new and the old. Mobile payments has struggled not in small part because tapping against your phone against stuff to pay for other stuff is weird. Particularly with older generations (not a small part of Amex's main demographic), this is a hard gap to get over-- it's almost like learning how to do something you're very used to in a completely new way. By offering credit cards (old things) with new services (new things), it helps a user acclimate to new uses for common things-- things they're already used to, which can prime them for more innovative usage later.
5. Doing things this way usually results in more adoption, faster. This generates positive PR which they can leverage for their next big thing.

Good job Amex. Proud of you.