Earlier this week, Softcard announced that Google purchased some of its assets and technology, and now the company is shutting down two of its apps. The company revealed in a posting that it will be closing down its Android and Windows Phone apps “in the near future.”
For now, users can still use the app to pay for goods and store their loyalty cards, but the company said that it will automatically terminate all of its wallets. In the posting, Softcard encouraged Android users to switch to Google Wallet, but said that users won’t be able to transfer their information from one app to the other. (Google didn’t get Softcard’s customers as a part of the deal.)
The news isn’t much of a surprise, since T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T – the three carriers that backed Softcard’s creation – have partnered with Google to push Google Wallet. With all of their efforts behind the Mountain View-based company’s payment system, there’s not much reason for Softcard to continue to exist.
It has been a rough road for Softcard, which recently changed its name from Isis Mobile Wallet in an attempt to avoid confusion with the terrorist group. Apple’s launch of its mobile payment service last year put further pressure on the company, and it seems that the carriers are happy to put their eggs in Google’s basket now that Apple is becoming a dominant player in the mobile payment space.
