From some Austinites
Isis, the mobile payments venture that is teaming up with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to bring NFC to the U.S., is piloting its program in Austin, Texas in 2012. While NFC adoption has begun to pick up in the rest of the world, it has been slow to become popular in the US for a number of reasons, mainly the lack of compatible hardware.
Isis will attempt to change that as it pilots its program in Austin and Salt Lake City in 2012. But will retailers to adopt this technology?
As it stands, NFC payments will affect retailers similarly as contactless credit card payments available from Mastercard and Visa. To be successful, Isis and other mobile payments groups will have to focus on the marketing benefits of mobile payments, such as loyalty programs, mobile coupon opportunities, and mobile advertising.
Software Advice, an Austin-based retail research company, had provided an overview of how it thinks Isis can spearhead adoption for this new mobile retail technology, including:
- Spreading the word via conferences and festivals
- Working together with the University of Texas and the Austin Technology Incubator
- Having the food truck scene adopt NFC
- Work with high-end supermarkets such as Whole Foods
- Work with local merchants in trendy neighborhoods such as Austin’s “SoCo”
For more on Isis and NFC in Austin, check out: Five Ways Austin Can Springboard Mobile Wallet Adoption. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/nfcnews-4.gif)
Isis signing up all major credit card companies for its mobile wallet platform is good news for consumers. It means that the user, not the service provider, will make the choice of which payment card they will link to their mobile payments account. Eventually I believe that our mobile wallets will become very much like their physical counterparts and take all of our cards, cash and whatever other payment methods may be available by then. http://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/isis-to-allow-consumers-to-link-any-credit-card-to-a-mobile-payments-account