Isis, the mobile payments venture formed by AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile US, has launched its mobile payments app in the Google Play store. The app enables users to load bank funds or credit card information into their smartphones. Their phones can then be used to pay for goods and services at retail establishments that support Isis.
Isis is compatible with 40 Android smartphones, but many users will need to get a new SIM card from their carrier in order to download and use Isis. iPhone users who want to use Isis will need to buy a special phone case that includes a near field communication chip.
The leading makers of point-of-sale systems (cash registers) are upgrading to “contactless” terminals which will use NFC to read credit and debit card numbers. Those numbers can be read just as easily from a smartphone as from the card itself. Isis is betting that consumers would rather tap their phone to a payment terminal than dig out a credit card, especially if the phone automatically retrieves coupons and loyalty cards for the merchant at the time of purchase.
“What they want to do is build a platform that will be accepted at merchants everywhere, so they can facilitate data exchange,” explained mobile payments analyst Rick Oglesby of Aite Group. “They are like a landlord charging rent to store information. Anybody who would store information in the SIM would pay – a bank, Google, a merchant, all of these would be asked to pay.”
Merchants who accept Isis pay to offer coupons and loyalty cards within the wallet. Banks pay Isis when their cards are loaded into the mobile wallet. Currently, Isis accepts information from cards issued by Chase, Barclays and American Express. Isis users can also use their smarpthones to transfer funds into an American Express Serve account, which can be used to pay bills online or send money to other people.
For now, the Isis app cannot be used to make purchases online. And the list of retailers that accept Isis may vary by location, since only retailers who have upgraded to contactless payment terminals can accept Isis.
Follow me on Twitter.
