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That is not entirely accurate or complete. The other week I dug up not one, not two, but three Google Wallet credit cards, from Discover and MasterCard, made be
by the-rc 3y ago
That is not entirely accurate or complete. The other week I dug up not one, not two, but three Google Wallet credit cards, from Discover and MasterCard, made between 10/2012 and 10/2013. The one from April 2013 even has NFC. They started as virtual cards that charged your real credit card(s), but the plan was to do more.
There was a collaboration (grant?) with Ross Anderson's team in Cambridge on secure NFC payments. Android supported those in 2013, but, of course, carriers had control of the secure element, so everything got derailed, to the point that Google tried desperate workarounds such as HCE, without luck. As we have all seen, tap to pay was actually invented by Apple in 2014.
So, yeah, things were even crazier and more complicated than you recall, but it wasn't always the case that people were copying Apple.
- refulgentis 3y agoI got there in 2016, so I'm bemused: there's a whole other layer that happened before. And Google Wallet changed to Google Pay which changed to Android Pay which changed to Google Pay and Google Wallet which is now changing to Google Wallet. The more things change... You're right, it wasn't just a Google credit card, I was referring specifically to this[^1], in 2020: Apple Card was announced as 'Apple is your bank'. (the article in my previous comment is the sunsetting of this rumor) [^1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/17/21225276/google-apple-card-smart-debit-card-rumor-development-payments https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/17/21225276/google-apple-car...
- dcchambers 3y agoYeah, that's the history I remember. It's been a 10+ year branding...journey. To put it nicely.