The trial of the new digital wallet service will kick off in a limited way.
The national mobile payments network, Isis, will have its official consumer trial launch, beginning on Monday, October 22, 2012, and will support three different Samsung Galaxy, Android based smartphones.
Users of the Galaxy S Relay 4G, Galaxy S II and Galaxy S III will be able to test the digital wallet.
According to the latest mobile payments news that has been circulating as a result of a memo that was leaked, the pilot launch of Isis will be on Monday and consumers will be able to start creating their smartphone wallets. This release complements the rumor that had already been circulating, which had suggested that the Play Store would start to make the Isis app available on that same day.
The mobile payments pilot program will be limited to Austin, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah.
The smartphone wallet will get started in those two cities and will remain limited to those locations throughout the entire initial trial. The Isis head of marketing, Jaymee Johnson, stated that “At launch, consumers in Austin and Salt Lake City will be able to use the Isis mobile wallet at hundreds of contactless-enabled merchant locations in each market.”
Johnson also pointed out that beyond the nationwide partners that they have, which include “Macy’s, Jamba Juice, Aéropostale, Foot Locker and Whole Foods, we have partnered with many iconic local merchants including Book People, Iron Works and University Co-Op in Austin, and Deseret Book, Energy Solutions Arena and Utah Transit Authority in Salt Lake City.
This will be a defining release for Isis, as those two cities were also the location of the initial launch of the Google Wallets mobile payments, which has failed to make any significant waves so far. The lack of interest in the contactless transaction marketplace has caused many to take a step back and wonder about the potential of the technology. However, the major players in the game are insisting that a slow start doesn’t mean that the service won’t take off at all. They continue to drive ahead at full steam.
