Sprint to launch more than 5 NFC smartphones by Q1 2012 [Exclusive]

Sprint to launch more than 5 NFC smartphones by Q1 2012

NFC Rumors has exclusively learned that Sprint is set to launch at least 5 NFC smartphones by quarter one of 2012. Considering that Sprint is the launch partner for Google Wallet, we haven’t seen that many NFC smartphones hit the Now Network as yet. So far, we have a couple of BlackBerry NFC smartphones and the now legendary Google Nexus S to choose from. At this point, the Google Nexus S is the only one of Sprint’s NFC smartphones that will even accommodate Google Wallet. We think it is fair to say that Sprint has had a slower start with NFC smartphones than we would have perhaps imagined back in May. We were surprised when Sprint decided to not get the NFC version of the Samsung Galaxy S II. That’s okay because the pace is about to pick up according to or sources.

Sprint to get more NFC Smartphones

Sprint is said to be releasing up to ten NFC smartphones, but that range is said to represent confirmed NFC smartphones that will be hitting the Now Network between now and the end of Q1 2012. Our sources suggested that there may even be more that are currently being evaluated, but we should bet on eight new NFC delights because we like to be optimistic. So if we were guessing, we would say two of those new NFC smartphones would be BlackBerry devices. As we have reported before, HTC wants to get into NFC smartphones in a big way so we can expect to see one or more from the manufacturer. Probably a Windows Phone 7 and an Android model we wouldn’t mind betting. We are also due to see a new iteration of the Google Nexus heading our way, and that will surely come in CDMA flavors for Sprint.  That leads us to a separate NFC rumor we received that you might just find interesting regarding Sprint and Google.

Sprint and Google, a love affair or a fight to survive?

The way we hear it is that everything isn’t all peachy in the garden of Google and Sprint these days. A source shared with NFC Rumors that the “Now Network” and the search giant are not seeing eye to eye on a lot of issues, and that the corporate cultures are not gelling as well as we all hoped. Of course, that is great news for Isis, but not great news for consumers. It’s also bad news considering that Google Wallet and Sprint represent the last bastion of unencumbered, uncontrolled NFC payments in the US.

So in summary, we will see a minimum of 5 NFC smartphones coming from Sprint and that figure could climb as high as ten. If you are an insider and have a copy of the Sprint NFC smartphone roadmap, we’d love to take a sneak peak so we can share what is heading our way in the next few months. We reported yesterday a rumor that Google Wallet launches sometime in the next week. We hope Sprint and Google can patch it up and we suggest separate beds, and making their own packed lunches for a while. That way, we can all benefit from Google Wallet over the Sprint network because at least a few of those new NFC smartphones will be Android.