According to 9to5Google, the reason Google Wallet is nowhere to be found on the upcoming Android Samsung Galaxy Nexus is becomes… wait for it… Verizon has blocked it. That's worth repeating. Google has allowed a carrier to prevent users from having a Google app on a platform marketed as being open, on a device meant to be the very flagship, the beacon of that openness.
If this story turns out to be accurate, it wouldn't be the first time Google has caved to Verizon. They've turned their backs on the net neutrality principles they previously held dear, for Verizon. They've betrayed their users by allowing crapware to be indelibly pre-installed on Android, for Verizon and other carrier partners. They even allowed the delay of Galaxy Nexus in the country in which they're headquartered, more than likely for Verizon.
And none of that would be a problem, none of it would even be noteworthy except that Google has used openness — complete openness — time and again as a weapon against Apple — a way to turn users away from iOS and rally them to Android. And now, as then, it's deliberately misleading at best and a flat out lie at worst. It's said in a way that suggests it's better for end users when it's not. It's said in a way that suggests it puts control in the end user's hands when it doesn't. It puts in back in the carrier's hands. It's better for the carriers.
With the corruption of the Nexus line, it's not even "openy" any more. It's less than openy.
If you use Android rather than iOS because you like a choice of hardware form factors, or prefer the deep integration of Google services, or its UI better fits the way your brain work, or you just flat out think it's better on any or many levels, that's fantastic. If you use Android for philosophical reasons and a fundamental belief in it being nobler and more open, you've been bamboozled. Again.
Source: 9to5 Google via Android Central
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