In the latest buzz surrounding the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, there is some good news and bad news.
The good news is that we now know what the yet-to-be-released smartphone will set you back when you sign a service contract. Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile operator based on subscribers, plans to sell the smartphone this month for $299.99 with a two-year contract, Dow Jones reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The precise release date of the gadget – the first to run the latest update to Google's Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich – still hasn't been disclosed.
Now, the bad news: Verizon Wireless won't include Google Wallet – the mobile payments application that enables customers to use their smartphone as wallets, making purchases at participating retailers by tapping their phones – in the Galaxy Nexus, The Wall Street Journal and Computerworld have reported.
"We're working to provide expanded services that will provide the best security and user experience in the market around m-commerce," Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson told the Journal. "We expect to provide access to an open wallet when those goals are achieved."
Google Wallet, which Sprint and Google rolled out earlier this fall on Nexus S 4G phones, is a competing service to Isis, a joint venture among AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless. The JV is scheduled to roll out service in Austin, Texas and Salt Lake City in early to mid 2012, a spokesman for Isis told Billing and OSS World earlier this year.
