Google allegedly working on Wallet 2.0, but Sprint wants its own mobile payment system
Despite being the only carrier to pre-load Google Wallet on its devices, Sprint is purportedly looking at offering its own mobile payment system. Sources have told NFC Times that Sprint is currently working …
Context & Ripple Effects
The relationship being strained here was built deliberately: after Google introduced its phone-as-wallet vision in May 2011, Sprint became the lone US carrier willing to pre-load Google Wallet, and in March 2012 Google committed to expanding it across ten more Sprint devices this year. That exclusivity made Sprint the test bed for NFC payments on Android.
Now NFC Times reports two parallel efforts, both unconfirmed: Google allegedly working on a Wallet 2.0, and Sprint developing a payment system of its own despite — or because of — that exclusive arrangement. The story traveled widely the same day, picked up by CNET, BGR, parislemon and several Android outlets, which suggests the carrier-versus-Google tension around wallets was already an open question among analysts.
First-order effects
- If the NFC Times report is accurate, Sprint is preparing to compete with the very wallet it pre-loads exclusively, putting its position as Google's sole carrier partner in doubt.
- A Wallet 2.0 would land first on Sprint devices under the March expansion plan, meaning any feature split between old and new Wallet versions hits Sprint's lineup before anyone else's.
Second-order effects
- Rival US carriers watching the only pro-Google carrier hedge toward its own system get a fresh argument that a carrier-branded wallet — not Google's — should occupy the NFC slot on their phones.
- Device makers shipping on Sprint would face pressure to support whichever wallet wins, complicating preload decisions and potentially fragmenting the NFC checkout experience for customers.
Third-order effects
- The fight points toward the phone's payment credential becoming a permission layer: whoever controls the wallet app — platform owner or carrier — controls which banks, offers and merchants reach the consumer at tap.
- If carriers conclude they can build their own wallets rather than rent Google's, mobile payments in the US could consolidate around carrier coalitions instead of a single platform standard, forcing Google into revenue-sharing deals to keep Wallet distributed.
The trend: Mobile payments are turning into a control contest between handset platforms and wireless carriers over who owns the wallet layer of the smartphone.