LG Optimus Elite

Virgin Mobile, a wholly-own subsidiary of Sprint, announced this morning that it would begin rolling out Google Wallet on its Android phones beginning with the recently announced LG Optimus Elite.

The Elite is a small iPhone-ish sized Android device running Android 2.3. It hit Virgin last week and follows the Optimus V and Slider as popular low-cost Android devices on Virgin Mobile.

Google Wallet has had a rough time with United States carriers. Verizon, with the Galaxy Nexus, blocked it late last year, and AT&T and T-Mobile both have refused to subsidize the Galaxy Nexus GSM version that is available off-plan for $399 through Google’s new Play Store. All three carriers are members of the rival ISIS mobile payments platform, and it is obvious that there is some anti-competitive pressure.

Virgin parent Sprint is a Google Wallet Partner, so it would make sense to see Wallet passed to more Virgin phones and perhaps even Sprint’s other pre-paid subsidiary, Boost Mobile.

The press release follows:

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Virgin Mobile just announced the LG Optimus Elite, a 3.5-inch Android 2.3 device featuring a 5-megapixel camera and 800 MHz processor, as its first device with NFC and Google Wallet. The device will officially go on sale on May 15 for $250 and is already available for pre-order (here).

Google confirmed Google Wallet was headed to Virgin late last month with the LG Optimus Elite, which is also available through Sprint alongside the Google Wallet-enabled Galaxy Nexus and LG Viper 4G.

The full press release from Virgin is below:

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