Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Google Acquires Softcard Technology, Inks Deal With Carriers to Pre-Install Google Wallet on Android Devices

misterpip said:
weak late desperate effort
Click to expand...

It's weird how people try things and they fail.

Apple does them the right way, they become successful and then the failures come back with a near identical product to Apple's which takes off.

Think the original Android! Google seems to have a way of latching onto Apple's success and seeming less 'evil' and more 'open'... when really Android has a bunch of closed source components (and like iOS... gaining root access requires a hack that potentially voids your warranty), locks you into the Google ecosystem and guarantees that all your searches/apps/emails will be scanned by Google for analytical purposes.
 
nfl46 said:
Damn, once again, Apple making things relevant. A few I can name off top of my head: Front facing camera, fingerprint scanner, and now mobile payments. Apple wasn't first, but they sure as hell made them relevant. Its funny how Google is ALL OF A SUDDEN serious about mobile payments...
Click to expand...

Conversely, Apple waits on the sidelines while others pioneer and experiment and take a lot of risk.

I commend Apple - waiting, for them, has paid off in the ability to market themselves well and come up with great solutions (mostly). However, "condemning" others for trying and failing seems like a very wrong angle to take when it comes to technology.
 
The most notorious data mining company in the world wants access to my financial information? Well, THAT sounds like a good idea.... :rolleyes:
 
SeattleMoose said:
The most notorious data mining company in the world wants access to my financial information? Well, THAT sounds like a good idea.... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That's what I'm talking about! :roll eyes:

I don't think the phone carriers are going to bring anything to the party here. It's the banks that are important in all this. They (the banks) is who wants secure payments more than anyone as they (and consumers) are taking the biggest losses when it comes to fraud.

Either way... not so sure Samsung's bet on Loop Pay is looking too good. I'm guessing most Samsung users will just keep using Google Wallet. Everyone else is NFC.... oh... except for CurrentC... but that seems dead out of the gate.

----------
djgamble said:
<<<CLIP>>>...locks you into the Google ecosystem and guarantees that all your searches/apps/emails will be scanned by Google for analytical purposes.
Click to expand...

I do believe that consumer privacy and security will be the downfall of Google. Most everything they do is all based on tracking everything users do so they can sell ads. What happens when people wake up and demand privacy and can shut off their data mining.
 
kuwxman said:
Nobody mentioned it here because Apple lovers didn't have anything to compare it too, lol. Now that they do, they're the first to say, "Google Wallet sucks. Freakin' copycats."
Click to expand...

Apple Pay certainly does not compare, it's so much better and more secure it's not even in the same league.

Well you could compare google wallet to loopPay. Both are outdated insecure methods of payment. People here needed to wait for loopPay to become a thing so google wallet had something to be compared to that was similar to google wallet.

----------
spectrumfox said:
They're not buying SoftCard to kill it. They're buying it to incorporate its technology into Google Wallet to strengthen the service.
Click to expand...

And doing that kills SoftCard. google knew this before they bought SoftCard.
 
Popeye206 said:
I do believe that consumer privacy and security will be the downfall of Google. Most everything they do is all based on tracking everything users do so they can sell ads. What happens when people wake up and demand privacy and can shut off their data mining.
Click to expand...

Well a lot could happen there. Goodbye product recommendations. Goodbye more relevant/contextual searches. Goodbye retailers being able to tailor experiences on their websites, emails, etc so that you get to see what you might be interested. In other words - be prepared to do more "work"

I'm not saying it's good or bad here. I'm just saying that contextual experiences - whoever is providing them, requires some level of data gathering.

Long term - who can say how it also might affect retailers in that contextual marketing provides a good return on their advertising investment. If "forced" to just bombard their advertising/emails to everyone equally, their costs could go up and therefor, so could their need to raise prices.

I value privacy. But I also value providing some information as long as there is a value exchange from the retailer. Amazon can keep my purchase history - because I value their recommended products. There's a value exchange there.
 
Last edited:
wikiverse said:
Why are you complaining?

Millions of people don't have iPhones and don't want them.
Click to expand...

The world has all types, even the millions you speak of. Not everyone is smart enough to want a secure closed smart phone as you just said.
 
Ah-hah! I'm going to trust my financial and biometric information to a device that requires an Antivirus to be safe, and whose Cloud is managed by a company that makes a living of data-mining.
Yeah right! Why I just don't Tweet my personal info to the world!?:mad:
 
Amazing Iceman said:
Ah-hah! I'm going to trust my financial and biometric information to a device that requires an Antivirus to be safe, and whose Cloud is managed by a company that makes a living of data-mining.
Yeah right! Why I just don't Tweet my personal info to the world!?:mad:
Click to expand...

Your financial information is already being stored on a system that needs an antivirus to be safe. It's just not your own device.
 
I do not see this working out for Google too well in the long run. However, I like the fact that more folks will be exposed to NFC payment options, which will in turn increase the number of NFC enabled POS systems.
 
thekeyring said:
I said this before: Apple Pay will change mobile payments because it forces Google to update and promote Wallet to be competitive, meaning iPhone and Android users both have a way to pay with their phone.

Before Apple Pay, no one mentioned Google Wallet in the iOS v Android debate; Apple has made it relevant.
Click to expand...

the above is probably the reason Google waited to make such a move. smart move on their part. just like Samsung made Phablets relevant and Apple then jumped in the pool, it appears Good did the same thing regarding payment options.
 
Michael Goff said:
Those idiots, not liking the same things you do... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I see you are putting your spin, changing the meaning of what I said. I didn't say anything about what I liked. I just said the facts. You can joke about what you think I like but that is very off topic. I'm talking about wanting a secure closed smart phone.

This is not about who likes what. You obviously didn't take what I said seriously, which is a shame. It is possible to not like something but still want it because it's the best.
(example - photoshop for me. I hate photoshop but it's the best for heavy image editing so I'm still wanting to use it for those tasks).
 
Last edited:
Muscle Master said:
Don't sugarcoat it

Apple Fanboys- " it's stupid and a gimmick, Apple will never adopt it"
Click to expand...

That's the way fandroids (who for strange reasons have flooded this forum) like to put it. Another way is, Apple does it's own thing when it thinks the time and technology is right. That's one of the things that separates Apple from followers and copycats.
 
the8thark said:
I see you are putting your spin, changing the meaning of what I said. I didn't say anything about what I liked. I just said the facts. You can joke about what you think I like but that is very off topic. I'm talking about wanting a secure closed smart phone.

This is not about who likes what. You obviously didn't take what I said seriously, which is a shame. It is possible to not like something but still want it because it's the best.
(example - photoshop for me. I hate photoshop but it's the best for heavy image editing so I'm still wanting to use it for those tasks).
Click to expand...

Except you don't need an iPhone to have a secure and closed environment.
 
androidguybill said:
Let's say I own an Android phone. I want to use Apple Pay. Ooops. I can't. So I have to use Google Wallet. The reverse is true too. Suppose I want to use Google Wallet but have an iPhone. I can't. That is it. That is all. End of story.

1. There is no competition between Apple Pay and Google Wallet because both are ecosystem dependent.

2. There is no reason for any retailer or bank that currently supports Apple Pay to reject Google Wallet. (Unless the entity objects to sharing data with Google, a requirement that Google will abandon if they have to.)

3. Which means that both Google Wallet and Apple Pay will succeed. Even if Apple Pay is used more and is used to buy more expensive items, Google Wallet will have more than enough users and purchasers to be viable. Consider the competing app stores as an example. Apple has THE App Store with $150 billion in revenue in 2014. Apple mobile device owners pay more for apps, developers make more on iOS, iOS has better quality apps, gets apps months - and sometimes more than a year - first, and has more exclusive apps. Good for Apple. But the thing is that the Google Play store had $95 billion in revenue in 2014 (or $5 billion less than the App Store had in 2013). And where the App Store had $50 billion in year-over-year growth (from $100 billion to $150 billion), the Google Play store had $45 billion in year-over-year growth (from $50 billion to $95 billion). Which means that the Google Play store is not going anywhere.

Now maybe your hope was that Apple Pay was going to be the thing that finally drove Android users to abandon their Galaxy Notes, Moto Xs and HTC Ones, causing Android to become unprofitable and collapse. Oh yeah, that and Apple finally adopting phablets (after years of claiming that they never would). Sorry. That was never going to happen. Even with Apple's great fourth quarter resulting in a decline in Android sales, a record number of Android devices were still sold last year because the first 3 quarters were so huge. How huge? Every Android manufacturer but Samsung and Sony had record revenue and profits last year.

Android isn't going anywhere, which means that Google Wallet won't either.
Click to expand...
Umm, I've used my Google Wallet account multiple times from my iPhone. Shoot, I've used it in the last week even. Wanna see my pay history...since that is a thing on Google Wallet (thankfully)?
 
CoMoMacUser said:
I have Google Wallet on my Nexus 4, but the only time I use it is when Google has a promo that requires it, such as free Play credits. I just don't see any compelling reason to use Wallet -- or Apple Pay, if I had an iPhone -- instead of a credit card. They all seem like solutions to non-problems, at least for consumers. Maybe there are compelling benefits for merchants and payment companies.
Click to expand...

The benefit to the consumer is clear. Apple Pay is a LOT more secure than using a credit card. You no longer have to worry about merchants getting breached or some gas attendant or waiter stealing your cc info.
 
this is just a carrier shakedown...

The carriers only started Softcard because they remember the good-ole days where they raped everybody trying to do anything with money on cell phones.

This 'purchase' by Google is just their bribe to the carriers to allow Google Wallet onto Android and to stop flogging softcard.

One of the reasons why Google Wallet never really caught on was because all the carriers actively suppressed it on Android phones [as carriers have been adding and deleting software on Android all along]. And they have been trying to get users to use Softcard instead of Google Wallet.

And it's another one of the reasons why the carriers have to be forced to be just dumb pipes instead of gatekeepers.
 
spectrumfox said:
Exactly.

Apple has been the follower of tech for years now, and I'm constantly amused at all the posters here who claim others are following Apple.

iPhone 6+ and Apple Pay are classic "Me too!" examples from Apple, but yet continue to be ignored by the Apple-tinted glasses folk.
Click to expand...

"Follower" if you define failed first attempts as "leaders". GW failed because of lack of security, privacy and ease of use. Apple took their time and addressed all of those shortcomings with Apple Pay. Others had fingerprint ID readers, but they were all clunky and unreliable. Apple introduced the first reliable, easy to use biometric sensor: Touch ID. In both cases, you see how the competition is following Apple's lead because they were the first to get it right.
 
... and suddenly mobile contactless payments become very important to everyone :D

----------
thekeyring said:
I said this before: Apple Pay will change mobile payments because it forces Google to update and promote Wallet to be competitive, meaning iPhone and Android users both have a way to pay with their phone.

Before Apple Pay, no one mentioned Google Wallet in the iOS v Android debate; Apple has made it relevant.
Click to expand...

A very known pattern. We saw that about a lot of things, like touchID and we are going to see that happen again about :apple: Watch.
Every time Apple do something new, the Google crowd arise "we have it since 1970 !".

Sure, but Apple made it relevant :D
 
Cuban Missles said:
Buy CurrentC too. Then you can have all the hot messes under one roof. Maybe that way they can stitch together something that will compete with Apple Pay. So far nothing seems close.
Click to expand...

The funny thing is to see Samsung and Google going again for different solutions, messing things up in an already fragments operative system
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back