Verizon Blocks Google Wallet

07. December 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: Internet Content · Tags:

Google Wallet is a nearly selfsame NFC service. Unveiled by Google in May, the service requires two pieces: An NFC chip and Google’s app.

The first telephone to lineament native Google Wallet digest is Samsung’s Nexus S, which got on sale lastly twelvemonth with a built-in NFC chip. In September, Google Wallet became live and the Samsung Nexus S became Google’s mobile payments guinea pig.

Here’s the catch: Sprint, along with MasterCard and Citigroup, threw its abide behind Google Wallet and partnered with Google. Verizon and the other major carriers are backing Team Isis.

The two technologies may co-exist happily. MasterCard, for example, has partnered with both Isis and Google Wallet. Phones may easily abide both options, letting customers download either or both payment apps and choosing which they prefer to use.

But with billions at stake in the mobile payments revenue stream, every player in the ecosystem is locomoting very, selfsame999 cautiously.

“This is an opening salvo in what is likely to exist a very long war for the mobile consumer wallet,” enounced Carl Howe, analyst at Yankee Group. “I believe this is maybe a very good indication that Google is forthwith a identical conclusion frenemy of Verizon.”

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, put to snuff on sale subsequently this month, was supposed to exist the first Android device on the Verizon network to lineament Google Wallet. It’s the 3rd of Google’s “hero” Android smartphones, which are designed by Google explicitly to establish expire the cutting-edge features of its Android operating system. Google partners with manufacturers on the phones — Samsung, in this suit — and releases them under the “Nexus” brand.

But a Google spokesman pronounced Tuesday that Verizon Tuner has necessitated the hunting fellowship “not to include this functionality in the product.”

Google’s spokesman declined to discuss Verizon’s reasoning or comment further.

Verizon’s spokesman Jeffrey Nelson countered that the companionship “does not occlusion apps.” The problem, Verizon says, lies in Google Wallet’s technology.

“Google Wallet is different from other widely-available mobile-commerce services,” Nelson enunciated in a devised statement. “In order to shape equally architected by Google, Google Wallet needs to exist integrated into a new, secure and proprietary hardware element in our phones.”

It’s straight that Google Wallet needs to access a special NFC chip constructed into the device. Verizon didn’t explicate why that was a problem, peculiarly because Google’s technology has been working but fine on Sprint’s network for several months. Merely Verizon enunciated it is continuing “commercial discussions” with Google virtually the issue.

“We’re working to render expanded services that will supply the best security and user experience in the market about mobile commerce,” Nelson continued. “We require to supply access to an open wallet when those goals are achieved.”

It’s not a channelise answer, only it’s possible to read between the lines. Since Verizon said it is working to render access to “an” subject wallet, and not specifically Google’s Wallet app, it’s likely that Verizon is hoping to favor its own mobile payments option over Google’s.




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