Google Wallet Faces Hurdles in Gaining Mobile Carriers Support

Verizon’s (NYSE:VZ) saying that it still talking to Google, but the initial decision to block the Google Wallet app on the Galaxy Nexus phone shows that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) could face an uphill battle in trying to get telecom carriers to support its app. ^[1] Verizon has its own interest at stake in backing Isis, a joint venture mobile payment initiative between Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile U.S. ^[2]

See our full analysis for Google’s stock

Isis May Rule Out Other Mobile Operators As Well

The 3 companies have bet on the growth of mobile payments with its investment of around $100 million, a small price for a market touted to reach $670 billion by 2015, according to Juniper Research. The problem for Google Wallet is pretty up-front, since as of now only Sprint seems to be the mobile operator supporting the Google Wallet app. Like Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile could follow suit in order to protect Isis’ interests. The irony remains that Google is not able to launch its own app on an Android-based phone.

In a smartphone market dominated by contract buying, mobile operators could continue to have a strong say, especially since they have their own mobile payment platform to promote. This could even act as further hindrance to Google’s own hardware efforts with Motorola in future. The timing of Verizon’s decision is not helping either, especially since Google is aggressively trying to build scale for the Wallet, with strong competitors like Square challenging the NFC technology.

We currently have a price estimate near $628 for Google’s stock, which is roughly the same as the current market price.

Understand How a Company’s Products Impact its Stock Price at Trefis

1. Wall Street Journal: Verizon Blocks Google Wallet on New Smartphones [↩]
2. Bloomberg: AT&T-Verizon-T Mobile Sets $100 Million for Google Fight: Tech [↩]