ISIS, the expensive joint venture between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile is about to go national. This follows an agonizingly long trial in Salt Lake City and Austin (which this writer wrote about nearly two years ago when with Connected Planet – sadly no longer with us).
So, what innovation and ground breaking advances can America expect? Well, they can store all their credit cards in the ISIS Ready phone and use them almost everywhere – well, in ISIS Ready stores. Actually, if you look at their site, you can store any credit card you like, as long as it is with American Express, Chase or Capital One.
And the ISIS Ready stores?
ISIS claims that 25 percent of the top retailers in the US will have contactless terminals by the end of this year. And they cite research that predicts that 1.3 million locations will contactless payment capability by the end of the year.
One has to wonder – does contactless mean ISIS Ready? And does contactless simply mean mPOS enabled – a range of faster moving payment and commerce solutions, driven by innovative, smaller companies?
And does ISIS allow you to search, surf, shop, share and ship by waving your phone at a terminal? Does it build a dynamic profile of preferences that are perfectly and precisely tailored to your needs and whims – ready to offer them at that perfect moment?
According to their site, not so much. You can ride a bus, if the bus is ISIS Ready and you can save with offers and you can simplify your loyalty cards.
As we have said before, it is almost impossible to innovate if huge companies are actively involved. And as we have said before ISIS is too expensive and cumbersome. We are not alone in questioning the viability of ISIS.
And – as we have said before – Direct Operator Billing is ‘where it is at!’
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