The whole “fiasco” surrounding the release of the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon has left many of our readers upset, bitter and for some — they want answers. Even though Verizon has been rather quiet on the subject, taking more of a “we’ll release it when it’s ready” stance, we still don’t have a solid reason for the “hold up.” But I guess Verizon can’t give a reason for the supposed delay when technically, a release date was never given. But with all the leaks flooding into our mailbox and various blogs around the net, it seems pretty apparent that something is definitely up and the Galaxy Nexus has most certainly missed its original target launch date (possibly more than once).

So what has been going on? What exactly is the reason for the delay? Hardware defects? Software defects? Well, yes and no. According to a few close — and completely separate sources — the delay has nothing to do with quality control and most certainly has everything to do with Google Wallet.

Money and corporate politics? Surprise, surprise.

According to higher uppers in Verizon’s chain of command, Google Wallet does not sit very well with Verizon. Especially when Big Red has already partnered up with ISIS to offer their own NFC mobile payment services. The conflict comes with Google wanting to keep their device largely “untouched” — it is their flagship device after all — and by Verizon demanding Google Wallet be removed, this is not only a disservice to their loyal customers but it could be borderline illegal if defined by a little something called “Net Neutrality” that we’ve reported on in the past. According to our sources, Verizon is treading on some thin ice here.

Our source also mentioned December 15th is, in fact, the new target date — but anything can happen from now until then. I’ve said it time and time again. The carriers are in total control and have all the power. It’s their world, we just live in it. As always, take all the above with a grain of salt. I just felt like our readers had a right to know what is apparently going on “behind the scenes.”

[Via AndroidForums]