The other day it was reported that the only major US carrier in the States that would not offer its customers a Samsung Galaxy S II variant is Verizon Wireless, although at the time no reason for that decision was given, other than the Big Red would be offering another smartphone in place of the Galaxy S II.

Well according to the guys over at the Boy Genius Report, the reason Verizon turned down the Samsung flagship Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone has now been revealed, along with what the carrier plans on offering in its place.

According to a “close source” “Verizon doesn’t think the Samsung GALAXY S II will be competitive with the iPhone 5 when it launches.”

As a result Verizon will be launching the new Samsung Droid Prime smartphone, a device that is destined to be the newest Samsung flagship handset running Android Ice Cream Sandwich, before the holidays and Verizon will have exclusivity over the device.

Not that much detail is currently known about the Samsung Droid Prime, however the device is probable the Samsung Nexus Prime as that is the first handset reportedly sporting Android Ice Cream Sandwich, so perhaps the Nexus has been swapped out for Droid to fall in line with the Big Red’s naming game.

Rumoured specs thus far on the Samsung Nexus Prime are a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED HD touch screen, and a 1.5 GHz processor alone with the latest Android operating system, but other than that everything else remains a mystery for the moment.

Also it is somewhat unclear just how long Verizon will hold exclusivity over the Samsung Droid Prime, so it may be some time before we see the smartphone on another carrier as the Samsung Nexus Prime, which has been tagged for an October release.

I’m not too sure why the Big Red considers the Samsung Galaxy S II an unworthy challenger to the iPhone 5 but I figure they have their reasons, and presume that an Android Ice Cream Sandwich device has more change against the next generation iOS smartphone.