Isis Mobile Wallet, the mobile payment solution created by Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, will launch in its first test markets on October 22, according to sources of ours. As previously announced by Isis, those markets are Salt Lake City, UT and Austin, TX. Isis, as many of you know, is a similar service to Google Wallet, in that it aims to turn your smartphone into a virtual wallet, giving you a place to store credit cards, loyalty cards, and find special offers. Below, we have additional details you may not have heard, but will likely see soon when the service goes live. 

Verizon has approved the first update for the DROID Incredible 4G LTE as build 2.17.605.2. The update will introduce a couple of major items – global roaming across 220 countries and support for Isis Mobile Wallet. It will also include Verizon’s Remote Diagnostics tool, improved LTE and WiFi connectivity, and support for Tango. The big players, again, are the global goodness and Isis readiness. 

Isis, the NFC mobile payment system created by Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, will not launch this summer and has been delayed. The payment system was initially supposed to arrive in testing markets – Salt Lake City and Austin – this month, but because they haven’t checked everything off of their “punch list,” we will have to wait longer.

Their marketing head, Ryan Hughes, said that their focus has been on making sure that when they launch, that they “do it properly and do it right.” He wouldn’t provide a reason for the delay, but did mention that they were not experiencing any major issues.

He also mentioned that he doesn’t believe that Isis will struggle without the new iPhone 5. While that may be true to a point, it certainly would have been much more highly adopted had Apple decided to toss an NFC chip in their newest smartphone.

Additional “market momentum news” is going to come in October. Hopefully we have good news then.

Via:  CNET

This morning, T-Mobile announced that a new update for the Galaxy S2 would include support for Isis, the mobile wallet app that they have teamed with AT&T and Verizon to create. For months, Isis news had cooled, but today is apparently the day for it all to come out. Bloomberg is reporting that Isis’ CEO has said that they are planning for a launch in their first markets, Austin, TX and Salt Lake City, next month. This is technically a delay, but the slow rollout has to do with a change in approach from having carriers process payments to putting that side of the business on the credit card companies. 

Is Isis, the mobile payment joint venture between Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, finally ready for prime time? According to a changelog for a new software update that is headed to T-Mobile’s Galaxy S2, it may very well be. For those not familiar, Isis is an NFC-based mobile payment system that 3 of the 4 major U.S. wireless carriers (Sprint excluded) partnered up to create. It’s essentially the reason that Google Wallet won’t work on any of your phones. 

Ready for mobile payment systems to take off and become a major part of your life? If today’s newly formed Mobile Payments Committee can come together and establish policy and develop a business strategy for the industry, you should start to prepare yourselves for them to be. According to a report out of VentureBeat,  the four major U.S. carriers – Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T – have joined together, along with Google, Isis, Paypal, Verifone, and Intuit, to create the previously mentioned MPC.

This doesn’t mean for a second that Google Wallet is all of a sudden going to be available on all carriers, but it does mean that key players in the industry are starting to realize that they can’t do this alone. With the help of each other, they can establish business relationships that will drive the mobile payment industry forward, work with policy makers to set up industry standards, and most importantly, teach consumers about the benefits of paying with phones.

I just hope this committee actually does something, unlike the Android Alliance. Mobile payments have been around for far too long to not have become mainstream yet. Let’s do it, MPC.

Via:  VentureBeat | The Verge

Cheers tjrulz!

Reports show that Sprint is looking to create their very own mobile payments system for customers, so what is the future of Google Wallet? According to sources, Sprint is reaching out to banks and other service providers to create a service to equal that of ISIS. At this time, Sprint is the only carrier to pre-load Wallet on their devices, but Google seems to continually work and build on the service, as if they have other plans. 

Isis Mobile Wallet will launch this summer in two test cities:  Austin,  TX and Salt Lake City, Utah. When that happens, owners of NFC-enabled phones in those cities will have “hundreds” of merchants to choose from that will take advantage of this new mobile payment option. As a service backed by Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, Isis is going to be the payment option of the future – today’s released list is evidence of that.