So what to make of the skirmishing between Google and Verizon over the Google Wallet and the Galaxy Nexus on the Verizon 4G LTE network?

There's a tendency to place a whole lot of significance into the fact that this Galaxy Nexus will not support the Google Wallet, despite being an Android phone. There was a day when people were conditioned to think that the software OS maker held the upper hand when it comes to apps. But for the Google Wallet to run properly, the software must access the hardware to enable the requisite security elements. That apparently is the domain of Verizon, which is apparently responsible for integrating the software with the phone, which is made by Sony.

PC World notes that, "Over the past two years, a battle has been brewing about which party should control the secure element in a smartphone. The wireless carriers want security put on a SIM chip, while the smartphone and mobile operating system makers, including Google, want the security information stored on an NFC chip or embedded within a separate chip."

There's a lot of politics going on. And we are so early in the NFC race that these sorts of dispute are bound to occur. Obviously, everyone has their eye on the future, and all desire  a comparative advantage. This is a dream case study for game theorists.

"The question is whether Verizon wants to move forward in a mobile payment world where users can move between different payment networks as they do with texting networks, or whether Verizon and the Isis consortium believe they can create a big enough network that it won't need Google Wallet or whatever Apple technology comes up with to support mobile payments."

In the end, we'll hopefully end up with a fairly open system, in which interoperability reigns. 

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