If you’ve been closely watching the development of Isis Mobile Wallet, you’ll be pleased to know that the service launched in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Austin, Texas today. Even better is the news that nine handsets are supporting Isis from the start, so you’ve got some options when it comes to picking an Isis-ready phone. Since Isis is a team up between AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, all you need to do is stop in at one of their stores and pick up your Isis-supported handset (provided you live in Salt Lake City or Austin, of course).
Along with the nine Isis-supported handsets that are available today, 11 more should be launching in next couple of months, meaning that there will be 20 Isis-ready phones by the end of the year. That certainly isn’t bad, and it shows that the people behind Isis are serious about getting the service supported. They’re going to need that support too, as Isis will be going head-to-head with Google Wallet.
Of course, the fact that your phone supports Isis doesn’t much matter if there aren’t any retailers that actually let you pay with the service. Luckily, the announcement today claims that there are “hundreds” of locations around Austin and Salt Lake City that are ready to accept your Isis payment – a full list of retailers can be found at the official Isis site. Isis will work with your American Express, Capital One, or Chase credit cards, and you’ll even get a $10 Isis card when you activate your wallet. You’ll get another $15 on the house when you make the Isis card reloadable (presumably by putting more money on it).
The Isis launch will definitely be exciting for some, but so far, mobile payments are having a hard time winning over consumers. Perhaps with this Isis push and the “rise” of Google Wallet, more consumers will begin adopting mobile as a way to pay for their purchases? We personally love the idea, but we’ll have to wait and see if it takes off with mainstream consumers. Stay tuned.
