Google Wallet Meets Roadblock on Pursuit of Ecommerce System
John Borkowski, December 8, 2011
Reports surfaced that Verizon (with other major wireless carriers expected to follow suite) has blocked Google Wallet from being used on their devices including the new Galaxy Nexus. The wireless company stated security concerns over the ecommerce system caused them to make the devices incompatible with Google Wallet.
Jeffrey Nelson, a company spokesman for Verizon issued a statement to Bloomberg “Verizon is committed to having the best security and user experience” and further says Google Wallet will be considered again “when those goals are achieved.” Other wireless carriers including AT&T and Sprint are expected to follow the same course of action.
Google Wallet would put the company right in the center of the multi-billion dollar mobile payments industry. A direct competitor for PayPal in this industry, the plan was to introduce Google Wallet in a select amount of cities including San Francisco, CA and New York, NY. Currently, the NFC-enabled Nexus is the only device that contains the capabilities, and this major setback is expected to put a severe damper on the implementation of the service.
There is news, however, that Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint are in talks to invest more than $100 million to a similar platform, called Isis. Information as this becomes available will be updated
