Today the folks from ISIS have actually confirmed the October 22nd launch date for their mobile payment system. After multiple tips, leaks, and rumors suggested it was coming soon today they’ve made it official. After multiple delays ISIS will finally launch on October 22nd in two test cities. Those being Salt Lake City, Utah, and Austin, Texas.
We clearly saw this coming after yesterday’s T-Mobile ISIS app launched early in the Play Store, not to mention leaks on Verizon have been pegging the same October 22nd release date. For those not fully sure what ISIS is, it’s a NFC mobile payment system similar to Google Wallet. Using built-in NFC chips, and NFC capable SIM and SD cards to make purchases nationwide. Well, nationwide once ISIS payments are accepted in more locations like MasterCard and Paypass.
T-Mobile recently released a blog post, detailing a few things they have planned for ISIS payments, and we’ll surely be hearing more from the three main carriers on board soon. Those being Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Sadly Google Wallet currently only works on the Now Network. While I wish Google Wallet would be accepted by all carriers, it looks like that won’t be happening any time soon unfortunately.
Today we didn’t get specific details, but ISIS states we can expect “as many as 20” different ISIS capable devices by the end of the year. That certainly is better than the few from Google. Paypal is aiming to offer something similar, but so far ISIS looks to be in the best position to make things happen since they’ve got 3 major carriers and multiple hardware partners all on board. Hopefully we see and hear more about “ISIS Ready” systems and smartphones soon.
[via VentureBeat]
