After months of delays and disruptions in the market that made analysts wonder if it would ever materialize, Isis has finally launched.
In case you haven’t heard of it before, Isis is a mobile payment platform supported by Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, as what was supposed to be a rival to Google Wallet. Of course, the Google mobile payment platform sort of folded before Isis even launched.
Isis was officially lit up during the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas earlier this year. But it was mainly a demonstration just for that event.
Now, it is finally here, although don’t get too excited. For now it is just available in Austin, as well as fellow test city Salt Lake City. It was supposed to be officially rolled out this summer.
Essentially, the idea behind Isis is that when you’re at the store, you can tap your phone at the register to pay without taking out your AmEx.
Select Visa and MasterCard products have also already become Isis-enabled, and Discover announced that it is supporting Isis but hasn’t fully implemented the technology yet.
Because it is a consortium of three of the four major mobile carriers, handset support for Isis is not going to be a problem.
Sprint is the only carrier not backing Isis, because it pledged its support to Google Wallet. After Google Wallet failed to display significant success, though, it will be interesting to see if Isis can reinvigorate the market.
