Last week’s PYMNTS.com “Ask The Industry” question sought your opinions on the NFC “wallet war.” When we saw it asked elsewhere on the web, we thought we’d throw the question to you, the experts. The prompt: is ISIS already permanently ahead of Google Wallet?
The question drew out some thought-provoking submissions from our audience. “I don’t think ISIS will amount to anything,” one reader said — a bold claim! Meanwhile, another commenter says Apple is really the firm to watch when it comes to NFC adoption.
We’ve aggregated [and in some cases edited] the conversation here to bring you up to speed on the latest that’s being said about NFC, and invite you to continue giving your input on NFC’s future. Let us know what you think!
My first reaction to the Quora post: “Is this a serious question?””¨While Google Wallet has been slow to gain momentum, I can’t think of a single criterion on which ISIS wins. ISIS isn’t even operational at this point… How many US consumers out there have NFC enabled smartphones in their hands today (US only since that’s where Google & ISIS will compete)? Let’s assign an optimistic number as part of a basic thought exercise…I think something on the order of 10-15M units paints a pretty rosy picture relative to reality (and I think it’s probably materially lower; please tell me if you disagree). Of that consumer population, how many even know what NFC is? Then, of that “NFC aware” population, how many have been motivated to download a mobile wallet app? In my estimation, I think it’s probably precious few people save for the earliest of early adopters. The point of this thought exercise is, how can we name mobile wallet winners when there isn’t even a large enough sample of consumers using these apps to see what works and what doesn’t.
– John Shuster
Isis has not even launched yet, there are 0.00 consumers using Isis at this moment. As for Google, they got out there early with an impressive list of partners but screwed up number of phones and a couple of other issues. ”¨”¨I gave my daughter a Samsung phone with Google Wallet and MY credit card and asked her to test it out, she has barely used it. Think about ease of use — a teenage girl with access to her dad’s credit card won’t use it. Now that is what you call EPIC FAIL!
– Dion Lisle
Apple is indeed keeping its cards close to its chest and they really would be the ones to watch… Regardless, I wouldn’t write off [Google Wallet] as yet. In fact, if anything, their wallet is out there and is being used… Wallets, in my view, will have to provide the consumers with assurances on safety, ‘rewards’ to entice (otherwise why bother), and broader acceptance in storefronts.
– Vik Kulkarni
I don’t think ISIS will amount to anything. I can’t imagine a more difficult group of bedfellows then a bunch of Telco’s trying to play nice with each other. And they are trying to work in a space that is not their core competency. It would be like MC & V creating and running their own cell phone business, not going to happen… I think the industry has this backwards. Consumers don’t have much incentive to adopt these technologies, much less understand them. I believe the solution is on the merchant side. If you can show them how to sell more goods, save money, drive customer loyalty, etc using smartphone tech they will drive customers to use it.
– William Cole
I believe that NFC is what is making Google and ISIS struggle with their wallet strategy. NFC is so core to their solution (as of now) that without mass adoption of NFC, both those strategies fail. Of course, they can make a small impact here and there because of their huge marketing dollars but they will be insignificant in the long run.”¨Apple will succeed in garnering their wallet market share whether they go with NFC or Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE). I would guess that they will go with Bluetooth so that they can provide another differentiation to iPhone and protect their ecosystem. (Imagine people yearning to use the new iPhone to experience a new wallet.) Apple’s wallet strategy would be provide this additional differentiation and not to compete in the general wallet market! Whatever it is, they can expect 200 million dedicated iTunes users fairly quickly.
– Phaneendra Ram
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