Mountain View, California — Android enthusiasts impatiently awaiting the arrival of Google’s Galaxy Nexus flagship smartphone in the States may be disheartened to learn that Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless carrier, nixed Google Wallet, the company’s competing mobile-payment system from the new Galaxy Nexus smartphone, citing security concerns.
According to Bloomberg, Verizon Wireless, co-owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc, claims that it is not “blocking” the functionality, though its will permit Google Wallet to run on the flagship Android 4.0 device once it is able to find a balance between “the best security and user experience,” Jeffrey Nelson, a company spokesman, said today in an e-mail statement.
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However, the association with a competing mobile payment system leaves some doubt about its motivations. The Basking Ridge, New Jersey- based carrier will allow the Google service, called Google Wallet, “when those goals are achieved.”
Earlier this year, Google unleashed its Google Wallet service on the NFC-enabled Sprint Nexus S 4G earlier this fall. The Galaxy Nexus is the first Android handset on Verizon to use NFC and it was expected to use Google Wallet.
Nevertheless, the move is an impediment for Google and comes amid intensifying competition between services that let consumers pay for goods with mobile phones. Verizon Wireless and partners AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA plan to invest more than $100 million in a joint venture called Isis, which competes with the Google Wallet in the NFC and mobile payment space, people with knowledge of the project said in August.
“The denial to allow this is probably being used as leverage in negotiations between Verizon and Google over the terms of the contract and the sharing of customer information,” David True, a consultant with Broadly Curious Advisors in New York, said today in a telephone interview.
When Google rolled out its Google Wallet payment system earlier this year, it mentioned that Android users that link a credit card to the Wallet app can pay a variety of retailers using an NFC-equipped handset with compatible “Pay Pass” terminals. So far, the only compatible handset has been the Nexus S 4G phone available from Sprint.
“As architected by Google, Google Wallet needs to be incorporated into a new, secure and proprietary hardware element in our phones,” Nelson said in a separate e-mail. “We are continuing our commercial discussions with Google on this issue.”
Verizon Wireless asked Google not to include the payment technology on the Nexus, said Nate Tyler, a spokesman for the Mountain View, California-based company. “Google Wallet is a secure payment platform that has been designed from the ground up with security as a priority,” Tyler said in a telephone interview.
Moreover, the Galaxy Nexus, manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co., runs the latest version of Google’s Android software and will go on sale this month. It is Verizon Wireless’s first Android phone that uses a near-field communications, or NFC, chip that — through Google Wallet — can transmit payment information to store registers.