Isis has had a slew of announcements – about an impending national rollout and further assertion by both Amex and Chase of their intent to continue their partnership. Surprisingly (or not) Capital One has stayed mum about its plans, and neither has Barclays or Discover shown any interest. And much ink has been spilled at how resolute (and isolationist) Isis has been – including here on this blog. So does the launch reflect a maturity in the JV to tackle a national rollout, or is it being forced to show its hands? Wait..I have more questions.. Continue reading
Drop Labs
Drop Labs – Skating to where the puck's going to be.
Tag Archives: Verizon
Carriers: We are here to help!
MWC being in full swing, has brought a truck load of new product launches and partnerships(too many that they start blending with each other to form one amorphous blob). But what caught my eye was an announcement from Jason Donovan, an AT&T executive on how it is considering a way to let app developers pay the cost of the data traffic associated with its usage instead of passing on the burden to subscribers. AT&T believes that it will roll out this service sometime in 2013, and that there is already rising interest from companies that hope to rely on this the feature to incentivize customer adoption. I believe AT&T is right in that there are firms who believe this to be a good thing. And one among them would be Isis. Let me explain why, before delving in to why overall this has the potential to be a really crummy idea. Continue reading
Did Google Wallet land it’s Second US Carrier – AT&T?
After the brouhaha over Verizon Galaxy Nexus and Google Wallet a few weeks back, it seemed that none of the Isis Carriers will allow Google Wallet on their networks. Sprint, absent from the Isis partnership has, and is a Google Wallet partner. But this past week, news emerged that Google Wallet can be installed and works on the Galaxy Nexus in the AT&T network. Is this evidence of AT&T warming up to Google Wallet and signal the coming of Google Wallet on other AT&T NFC equipped phones?
Sorry to break your bubble, but the short answer is NO. Continue reading
On the road with Google Wallet
I rode about 900 miles in the last four days, cutting across Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to be together with my family for Christmas. I figured this would be a good time to put my new Galaxy Nexus and the Google Wallet app through its paces. Following are my impressions from it, which as a whole was very cool and satisfying. But (and there is always a but..) it also brought to surface some serious handicaps, which though not Google’s fault, could bring its wallet initiative down like a lead balloon. Continue reading