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NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Although reporting positive overall results for 2015, France-based Gemalto today said SIM revenue fell by 17% and mobile-financial services revenue dropped by 8% for the year, both of which it blamed at least in part on the closing of the U.S. Softcard joint venture last year.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Google officially launched Android Pay in the U.S., its host card emulation-based rival to Apple Pay and its second stab at rolling out NFC payments for in-store payments, following its little-used Google Wallet.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – France-based Gemalto estimates it is losing around €30 million (US$33.8 million) in revenue per quarter from the closing of the Softcard mobile-payments service in the U.S. last March–a setback that will end up costing the vendor nearly €100 million in lost sales this year and around €50 million in profit.

NFC Times Exclusive Analysis – Google purchased Softcard for one reason, really, to get its Google Wallet app preinstalled on Android phones sold by the Softcard mobile carriers.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Softcard’s jobs cuts are more severe than earlier reported, and the layoffs are a sign that the mobile carriers making up the joint venture have rejected a 2015 budget proposed by management of the struggling NFC wallet, NFC Times has learned.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Softcard CEO Michael Abbott was selling the value of rewards in the telco-owned mobile wallet today during a keynote address at the Money 2020 conference in Las Vegas.

Just when many industry observers were counting Softcard out in the wake of Apple’s announcement of Apple Pay, the mobile carrier joint venture formerly known as Isis today announced a deal with its biggest merchant to date, the Subway sandwich fast-food chain.

The telco-owned joint venture behind the Isis Wallet announced a new name for the wallet, while the merchant-led MCX consortium finally released its consumer-facing brand and a timeframe for a planned rollout, as the U.S. mobile-payments landscape heats up.