Isis, a joint venture of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, has announced that the major hardware makers of Android (and Windows 7) phones have climbed on board and will offer hardware that implements Isis' NFC tech and standards. The press release names LG, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and BlackBerry manufacturer RIM as hardware partners, as well as DeviceFidelity to offer solutions such as NFC enabled memory cards for phones built without NFC hardware. Scott Mulloy, chief technology officer at Isis, says the following:
Isis’ technology standards provide the direction and certainty needed for the development and deployment of NFC devices and the mobile commerce ecosystem. Working together with the device makers and our founding mobile carriers, Isis can provide the consumer choice and scale necessary for widespread adoption of mobile commerce.
While we can't see the future, we're going to have to assume this isn't good news for Google and their own NFC payment system, Google Wallet. Mired in some unknown exclusivity agreement with Sprint, Google Wallet was not provided for any unlocked, non-carrier branded Nexus S devices, though they would be fully capable. With carriers and OEM's on board with Isis, it looks like another uphill battle for Google. The good news for us is that now companies are seeing the value in devices with NFC technology, and the manufacturers are ready to provide it. There's still one major player who hasn't chimed in yet, though -- Apple. Only time will tell if Apple jumps on board with the upcoming "standard" or if they implement iWallet themselves in pursuit of a bigger cut. The press release is after the break.
Read more about RIM and Isis at Crackberry
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