Verizon is blocking Google Wallet on Galaxy Nexus
9to5google.com
9to5google.com
Despite Google's stumble, Carriers is a whole another breed. Isis sounds more and more looks to copy Microsoft in its heydays.(back in the days of Netscape - NO alternate browser on my Operating System!). The carriers are also closing rank, in that they are pushing through the SIM based approach, across the board to the respective handset makers so that Google Wallet will be crippled on rollout.
All this crap, when there is a zero compelling value proposition exists, to both merchants and consumers, the two groups who must embrace NFC wallets for these two initiatives to make any money.
I cover these topics on my blog, but its easy to get the side of one's mouth foaming once you start talking about the missteps from all involved, so early in this game.
Huh what? Microsoft never blocked Netscape from being installed on the user's computer. It's Apple which prohibits installing browsers on iOS devices.
Surely the FTC won't let that stand on anticompetitive grounds?
Unless some sort of settlement were reached, you'd basically have to prove ISIS is a "contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce" (15 U.S.C. §1). That would be an expensive, multi-year legal battle by itself, and may or may not succeed. Then there's the question of what to actually do about it, which isn't necessarily going to be "oh, just allow other payment providers".
However, Google may be "voluntarily" witholding Wallet on the Galaxy Nexus to avoid regulatory problems.
That said: Was anyone actually excited about Google Wallet? I have to admit that I haven't found a use case for NFC that doesn't directly turn me off yet. Where would that work? How would that replace any current purchase (I mean - realistically) and gain adoption?
It immediately reminded me of the chips on our direct debit cards we have in a number of EU countries. You can load money "on your card" on most ATM and for a while everyone tried to use that as the next way to pay, the big innovation. Hell, McDonald's let you pay like that.
Before the trend died, quickly. At least in DE that sort of stuff is dead for all I know. Why NFC? Why combining your wallet and phone?
(Edit: The question above was genuine: I fail to understand why anyone would be excited about NFC in general but more so about Google Wallet. Downvote all you want, but please consider educating me with a comment as well, explaining why and how I'm wrong)
Granted, those options would draw more power. On the other hand: As far as I understand NFC is _really_ limited in terms of distance between the endpoints.
Wouldn't your examples require you to place the phone in a specific place in the car/at work? Like (for the car) one of these mounts for example?
Your examples wouldn't work for me at least, because the phone's in my pocket or ~somewhere~, not really in a place that is carefully planned for. You seem to want a general version of the Palm/HP Touchstone it seems, albeit without charging?
There's an app I use called "Settings Profile" which works wonderfully. I have a cell tower event that knows when I'm at work and switches to my work profile (lower volume ringing, different ring tone, etc). It doesn't use just one tower, it uses 3, so it's very specific to the region of my office.
It has a lot of other features. For example, when I plug into power, I turn on Wi-Fi, which causes my podcasts to start downloading (only happens on Wi-Fi).
The other thing I do: mute my ringer during scheduled meetings.
This app is in my top 5.
The idea of having one chip that resides in your phone is appealing compared to carrying several cards with embedded ICs. And, since the US has skipped the whole chip+PIN phase, this will be the technology that brings IC-based payments to the US.
Imagine landing at an airport, virtually checking-in, and having your hotel room key sent to your phone which can then be used to open your hotel room without ever going to a front desk. That is something a simple card can't do.
Discovered it in a time at which I cared about G+, but couldn't install/update it anymore after moving to IL (by now it's available here as well as far as I'm told, but meh..).
1: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.notenking.mf&f...
Think of pictures, phones are convenient and take good-enough pictures for most people, but they're still not a replacement for anything but the cheapest of digital cameras. Anyone goes somewhere planning to take pictures will bring a dedicated device.
For me its music. I tried listened to music with my phone exclusively for a few months, and it hurt, I've gone back to my mp3 player. I wanted to like my phone for music, I really did.
As much as I would like it to be true, the economics don't make me think there will be many fields where phones are going to be more than wide-breadth shallow-depth devices, especially when hardware is the limiting factor.
It is Google's choice to currently keep Wallet limited to the S 4G on Sprint and without any actual evidence at all to support that Verizon is actively blocking Wallet this article is just that. Speculation.
- Google said "Eh, you know, I think that I only want this strategic product I've been talking about forever on a smaller carrier, and not the biggest carrier in America. It's not like a payments system benefits from a network effect anyway."
or
- Verizon, famous for gimping core features like Bluetooth to protect their shitty ringtone business, said "Hmm. Okay, let's just switch this competing service off... aaaand, we're done." And then Google's like, "Oh. Fuck. Well let's be sure and spin this in a way that doesn't make us look like complete eunuch clownshoes."
I mean, obviously there are further alternatives. But absent additional evidence, I like the one that's most consistent with existing patterns of behavior.