Sorry in the wake of the Android Pay API stories I need to rant from an international perspective...

[G+_Duncan Jaffrey]

Sorry in the wake of the Android Pay API stories I need to rant from an international perspective where I can't get a Google credit card and use Google wallet.

I don't mean to be overly negative about Google, BUT, they have dropped the ball on mobile payments (and other integrations). Apple achieved everything people said couldn’t be achieved for NFC payments.

 1. They got all of the major US banks on board, and I’m sure internationally they will get similar results,

2. They got a large cohort of major merchants to allow NFC payments and the halo effect will spread to other smaller merchants.

3. They got consumers to adopt the technology, sure it might not be in droves but I bet you its growing.

The achieved this through good partnerships and a compelling software and hardware package. It seems Google lacks the chops to negotiate/ force such partnerships and because of the mess that is the android software / hardware Eco system we are stuck without a standard for secure authentication and payments.

I had hoped that with Motorola they would finally be able to produce multiple price point/ configuration “reference style” consumer hardware that would deliver the software hardware package needed to delivery things such as NFC integrated payments.

 In the spirit of AHA they could have let OEMS know what was coming and offered them the ability to get on-board and use the same reference hardware components for a seamless integration of all of the Google-Android features. We all know how that ended, with a sale of Moto to the kind people who brought you sailfish.

I am an android devotee, but I see major issues for Google to get traction with these complicated interconnected solutions because they don’t control the full stack, and won’t put our minimum requirements for implementation of these features. They insist on developing platforms and APIs in the hope the OEMS will implement their own interconnects and delivery well-polished integrated user facing features. Google this strategy is not working.

[G+_L I]

Google doesn't have the chops to force standards changes because they don't make phones. They make the OS. There are no more Microsofts. Apple is the big dog in the US because of the market share/demographic of their phone owners. They can force change. Google can't - at least not as well.