Report: to pay carriers woo banks in order to jumpstart its llet service

BY GreenBot Staff

Published 20 Feb 2015

is going all out to revive its llet service by throwing cash at wireless carriers phone manufacturers, according to a ll Street urnal report.

The company is in talks with carriers, banks, hardware makers on a variety of initiatives to get llet front center on phones in stores. The effort is spurned by the success of Apple y, which CEO Cook recently said was the most popular mobile payment method.

The urnal says that wants to get the details finalized before its I/O developer conference begins May 28 so it can put together a splashy re-launch.

llet has had a difficult path, as some carriers stores have blocked the app in favor of their own preferred alternative. so, Apple has been able to get multiple banks credit card companies on board, while has struggled to get a larger network of partners. Apple’s advantage here is its control over the ione ecosystem, while must negotiate with all the various partners in the Android ecosystem.

ong with the battle against Apple y, one of ’s own hardware partners is now entering the competition. Samsung just bought opy, which means little incentive for one of the largest Android hset makers to help out in promoting llet.

One plan to fix this, according to the report, is for to pay carriers share advertising revenue to feature llet prominently on devices. Carriers may be more willing to listen this time around, as their former favorite solution Softcard (once Isis) hasn’t taken off.

The story behind the story: has a tough road ahead in wrangling an unruly group of carriers hardware makers to cooperate. It needs to act quickly as the relative ease of Apple y its wide network of partners could give those considering a switch to iOS one more reason to make the leap.