It's Dec. 8, and there's still no Verizon Wireless Galaxy Nexus. It looks like the latest rumored launch date, Dec. 9, is going the way of other rumored launch dates for the first Ice Cream Sandwich-based phone.
Geeks are frothing, but it's worth remembering that "Nexus" nowadays just means "the first phone with a new OS." There will never be a true, unmodified "Google experience" phone on Verizon or Sprint because on CDMA systems, the carrier always gets the last word. The actual Nexus dream is long dead.
Let's go back to the start. When the original Nexus One came out in January 2010, it wasn't solely a phone concept—it was a retail concept. Nexus was supposed to free us from carrier stores. Nexus phones were eventually supposed to come out on every carrier, at the same time. It was supposed to lead to a mix-and-match market the way they have things in Europe.
When that failed, Google fell back to talking about the phones themselves. Nexus was at least supposed to mean the "pure Google experience"—that Google had the last word on what's going into your phone. Unfortunately, in the U.S., that's impossible.
On CDMA, It's Always the Carrier Experience
Concepts like the "Google experience" can only exist on GSM networks because only GSM requires carriers to accept phones they haven't approved for use. If you want to be called GSM, you have to take unlocked devices, as long as they comport with the GSM Association's standards and national rules.
That turns GSM carriers, to some extent, into dumb pipes rather than gatekeepers. They've fought back by using subsidies. Ordinary American consumers don't buy unlocked phones for AT&T or T-Mobile because they cost at least $250 more up front than the officially approved, subsidized phones do. But at least there's that option. At least geeks can buy unlocked phones.
There's no such option on Verizon's and Sprint's CDMA networks. If you want access to those carriers' networks, you have to play by their rules. It is impossible to get a true Google experience (or for that matter, a pure HTC or Samsung experience) phone on Verizon, Sprint, MetroPCS, Cricket, or any other CDMA network, because on a system where the carrier only has to accept whitelisted phones, the carrier has all the power. No CDMA carrier is ever a dumb pipe.
(Yes, there's a GSM-like solution using SIM-like cards called R-UIMs that CDMA networks in India and some other places use, but U.S. carriers will never, ever, ever use R-UIMs. Never.)
The Nexus S 4G Was No Exception
Even the most sensitive, consumer-friendly carrier can't help but interfere with phones. At the very least, they want to get their helpful carrier-bill-paying app on there—so why stop there? After all, Google can't get its phone out without carrier approval.
Sprint's Nexus S 4G looks like a pure Google phone, but it's only clean because Sprint wanted it to be. That was crystal clear when the phone launched: Google took a back seat to Sprint in the press release and launch materials. Sprint had the final word.
The concept of carrier-independent phones only matters for a tiny group of geeks, but they're angry geeks. Our CDMA networks have enough other advantages that consumers aren't about to abandon them, and Verizon and Sprint have seen enough success with the technology that they don't intend to switch to GSM.
Will this ever change? LTE at one point offered hope, but there's such a jumble of bands and standards with LTE phones that we aren't likely to see usable unlocked, multi-carrier LTE devices for years.
Whenever it comes out, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is guaranteed to be a good phone. It'll also probably still be the first phone in the U.S. with Android Ice Cream Sandwich. But if you're cheering for a phone where Verizon gets out of the way, forget about it. As long as CDMA exists, you'll never have one.
For more, see PCMag's hands on with the unlocked Galaxy Nexus and the slideshow below.