<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Gigaom]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://gigaom.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Kevin Fitchard]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[http://search.gigaom.com/author/kevinfitchard/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Google buys Softcard, teams up with carriers on mobile payments]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>Google and the mobile carriers have long been at odds over mobile payments, but faced with the runaway success of Apple Pay, the two rivals have become friends. AT&amp;T, Verizon and T-Mobile are selling their mobile wallet joint venture Softcard to Google for an undisclosed amount, Google and Softcard <a href="http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com/2015/02/tap-tap-whos-there-google-wallet-and.html">revealed on Monday</a> in <a href="https://news.gosoftcard.com/2015/02/23/softcard-and-google-complete-deal-to-power-the-next-generation-of-mobile-payments/">separate blog posts</a>, and they have agreed to pre-install Google Wallet on their Android smartphones starting this fall.</p>
<p>That’s quite a full circle to arrive at, considering that for the last three years the three operators <a href="https://gigaom.com/2011/12/06/want-google-wallet-on-more-phones-wait-for-isis-to-launch/">actively blocked Wallet from their devices</a> in blatant protectionism for their own mobile payments service Isis. The problem was that Isis, which <a href="https://gigaom.com/2013/11/14/kaching-us-carrier-backed-isis-wallet-program-is-live/">changed its name to Softcard</a> last year, was <a href="https://gigaom.com/2013/11/14/kaching-us-carrier-backed-isis-wallet-program-is-live/">slow to arrive to market</a>, meaning few Android phones had access to any kind of near-field-communications (NFC)–based wallet.</p>
<p>That left the nascent smartphone contactless payment market stillborn in the U.S. until <a href="https://search.gigaom.com/company/apple/">Apple</a> stepped in with Apple Pay. Apple Pay is not only available on every iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (as well as the forthcoming Apple Watch), but it also built in a much bigger ecosystem for its service, bringing <a href="https://gigaom.com/2014/12/16/that-was-quick-apple-pay-works-with-90-of-most-used-bank-cards/">card-issuing bands and online merchants to the table</a> that neither <a href="https://search.gigaom.com/company/google/">Google</a> nor Softcard managed to attract.</p>
<p>Those two also-ran wallets are obviously feeling Apple’s heat, so instead of battling it out in the Android space, they’re teaming up, which should make banks, merchants and especially Android-owning consumers happy. It probably would have made more sense to sign this deal a year earlier, though, as other companies are trying to <a href="https://gigaom.com/2015/02/20/why-samsung-is-right-to-bypass-google-wallet-for-looppay/">fill the vacuum the Isis-Google war created</a> with their own Android wallets.</p>
<p>Samsung last week <a href="https://gigaom.com/2015/02/18/samsung-buys-looppay-bolstering-mobile-payment-ambitions/">bought universal digital credit card startup LoopPay</a>, which uses an alternate technology to NFC that gives it access to most point-of-sale terminals in the market. As I wrote last week, Samsung still has to add <a href="https://gigaom.com/2015/02/20/will-samsungs-mobile-wallet-plans-work-well-know-in-6-months/">a few missing pieces to its payments puzzle</a> – most notably direct partnership with the banks – but there’s a good chance we might see the first Samsung contactless payments app debut in the Samsung Galaxy S6 when it is unveiled at Mobile World Congress next week.</p>
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