After Apple announced Apple Pay last year in a big way, Google is now planning to undermine Apple Pay by acquiring Softcard, a mobile payments solution which is backed by 3 biggest carriers in U.S viz. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. This acquisition has now provided Google firepower in the mobile payments war. This retribution by Google now shows us how the rivalry between Google and Apple is extending beyond certain boundaries.
Softcard was started in 2010 but was in development for 2 years citing many problems, later faced stiff competition from Google Wallet- the NFC based payments system introduced by the Menlo Park based giant in 2011 and this deal was a surrender of sorts for Softcard as it had not been as successful as envisioned by the company.
Google Wallet, later this year will come integrated with its tap and pay functionality in Android Samrtphones sold by At&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Google Wallet will now be shipped on Android Phones running 4.4(KitKat) and above. Softcard which started its tap and pay functionality in 2012 will now be integrated into upcoming versions of Google Wallet. Though Google had a head-start in this mobile payments service as Google Wallet is 4 year old service, this concept gained much required momentum at the launch of Apple Pay last year.
This is a booming market for upcoming years and it will be interesting to see who wins the race as almost 16 million U.S. consumers spent about $3.5 billion on tap-and-pay services last year and it is being predicted that by 2018 figures will reach an astonishing number of 57 million customers spending $118 Billion by this tap and pay service. This market is reaching new heights as just last week even Samsung reported its own acquisition of LoopPay, securing a new way for its consumers to make payments through their Smartphones. This pre-installation technique is not new for Google as it has been doing it for years by integrating its services like Gmail, YouTube and its search engine into Android which is its own Operating System.
This acquisition by Google is now proving a worthy competitior to Apple's service, Apple Pay