Verizon keeps Google Market app off Galaxy Nexus, says report

Verizon will begin selling the Google-branded but Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus this month, but without a key Google application. According to the Wall Street Journal, Verizon is preventing Google from including Google Wallet on the device.

"Verizon asked us not to include this functionality in the product," a Google spokesperson told the Journal.

In November, Google cancelled its Google Checkout service, in favor of going all-in with Google Wallet (Unfiltered: Google says bye-bye to Checkout, hello to Wallet in mobile payment move). The NFC-based service lets users tap their phone to a payment "station" at the register, speeding transactions, throwing in coupons and more easily tying users to loyal programs. While an early arriver to a growing mobile payment market (CP: Google Wallet expected to launch 9/19 for Sprint Nexus S users), Wallet has been off to a slow start, in part because for now it's only available on the Sprint-offered Nexus S.

A Verizon spokesperson told the Journal that it was holding off while security and user experience issues are worked out. "We expect to provide access to an open wallet when those goals are achieved," he added.

Another motivation could be the $100 million that Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have put into Isis, the trio's planned, though slower moving, mobile payment solution, expected to launch in key markets in early to mid-2012 (CP: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile to put $100 million into Isis).

An Isis Mobile Innovation Forum will take place Feb. 21-22, in Austin — one of the Isis launch markets. The event will bring together point-of-sale software companies, value-added resellers and merchants for discussions about the business opportunities created by Isis and mobile payments, the company said in a Nov. 23 blog post.

One imagines that by that time, if not shortly after, Verizon will have its security and user experience concerns worked out.