Could It Be? Isis Confirms October 22 Launch Date

The rumors we heard earlier this week are true: Isis has finally confirmed October 22 as the launch date of its NFC pilot launch.

“Isis will be launching in Austin and Salt Lake City on Oct. 22. By year end, as many as 20 Isis ready handsets are expected to be in market,” said Jaymee Johnson, Isis’ head of marketing. The long-awaited pilot has suffered no shortage of setbacks, and has been delayed from its original date of the first half of 2012, to September of this year to what will now be late October.

That Isis ran into difficulties isn’t all that surprising: NFC hasn’t quite taken off yet the way some remain optimistic that it will, with Apple declining to add NFC capabilities to its iPhone 5 and QR codes increasing in payments popularity.  Isis also shifted transaction responsibilities from carriers to credit card issuers, further extending its timeline.

Isis installed 10 checkout stations at a New Jersey Amarak cafeteria in early October, but has yet make its mobile wallet platform available to any broad segment of the population.

AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile all back Isis, giving it a broad range of carriers the company believes gives it an advantage over other mobile wallet competitors, such as Google Wallet. Now, at least with a limited population sample, Isis can put that theory to the test.

Watch out though: Isis does have a few days left to delay their launch again.

Just kidding. Sort of.

To read more on Isis’ debut, click below.