BloombergBusinessweek reports that Google Wallet has become “a money pit” that has generated fewer than 10 million downloads despite the work of “hundreds of developers” and an estimated $300 million spent to acquire digital payment startups to help create the app. Sprint remains the only tier-one carrier to support the system, the piece notes, while AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA continue to block Google Wallet in favor of their own Isis initiative.

It’s true that Google Wallet has been an unqualified flop so far, and not just because of the carrier blockade — a lack of NFC-enabled handsets in the market has shackled uptake from the start. But as Berg Insight reported earlier this week, Starbucks remains the lone mobile payment system to really get legs in the U.S. so far, and no system with multiple merchants has gained any real traction. (And MobilePaymentsToday.com notes that investment in Isis has rivaled that of Google Wallet, with similarly disappointing results.)

I’ve long been skeptical of the hype surrounding mobile payments, but I do believe they will gradually begin to catch on as the market consolidates and as payment systems provide compelling rewards for consumers to pay with their phones rather than credit cards or cash. And Google has an impressive arsenal of weapons to tap that market: In addition to maintaining the world’s dominant mobile operating system, it has a massive list of advertising and retail partners, and it can spend vast sums marketing Google Wallet. Mobile payments still have big hurdles to overcome, and Google must find a way to get carriers to support (if not exactly embrace) its solution, but don’t count Google Wallet out just yet.