Tech Watch: Is Google Wallet A Bust?
(KCBS) - Google Wallet, the app which allows users to pay for items using their smartphone, is off to a rocky start - just six months after being introduced.
CNET Editor-at-Large Brian Cooley said the app is struggling to find carrier and device partners.
"They have it available on only one phone from Sprint and one other unlocked phone you can buy. But those are always very expensive," Cooley said. "And all the other carriers, aside from Sprint, said 'we're not going to let our phones do it,' largely because they want to do their own competing payment system. So Google is in competition with some of the wireless carriers that it's also a partner with - who sell (Google) Android phones."
CNET Editor-at-Large Brian Cooley:
Cooley said he's not sure if Google will continue with the struggling app. "I think it's too early and too lucrative for them to let go of. I have a hunch they stay in this."
He said that part of the problem has been name recognition, as customers either don't know what it does or how to use it.
You can hear Brian Cooley's Tech Watch report Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:50 P.M. on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM.
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