You'd be hard pressed to find a pie that Amazon doesn't have a finger in, but it looks like the retailer has had enough of the mobile payments scene for now: its Amazon Wallet beta program is getting canned this week after six months.
The limited scheme was only available in the US during its short lifespan and the fact that it's now being shuttered would suggest that Amazon doesn't think it has the potential to be a long-term project further afield.
There's also Apple Pay of course, now up and running in the US and apparently coming to the UK in the near future. It's possible that Amazon knows a losing battle when it sees one.
Epic fail
Amazon Wallet was first announced around the same time as the Fire Phone - and look how well that turned out. CEO Jeff Bezos obviously had dreams of it becoming the default payments system on Amazon hardware, but those ambitions are now on hold.
Users of Amazon Wallet were informed via email that it would cease to exist. It will disappear from Amazon's app store but any current gift, loyalty or membership card balance can still be spent. Amazon never got around to adding debit or credit card support, which is quite a hole to leave.
"We have learned a great deal from the introduction of the Wallet and will look for ways to apply these lessons in the future as we continue to innovate on behalf of our customers," said Amazon spokesman Tom Cook in a statement.
