Despite being one of the most popular smartphones in Australia, giant US carrier Verizon Wireless has decided not to range the Samsung Galaxy S II offering when it goes on sale in the USA next week.

The move is a blow to Samsung who is currently fighting battles with Apple over the design and functionality of the S II, which was banned recently in Europe.
  
 AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile will sell the popular phone in the USA. Verizon who last year was appointed by Apple to sell the Apple iPhone has not denied that it was pressured by Apple to drop the Samsung smartphone.

A Verizon Wireless executive said “We have an extensive portfolio that offers customers a great variety of devices, including the Samsung Droid Charge,” said Brenda Raney, a Verizon Wireless spokeswoman. She declined to elaborate.

The Wall Street Journal said that without the sales support of the largest U.S. wireless provider, Samsung could have a more formidable task taking on global market-share leader Apple. and its iPhone. Samsung became the world’s second-largest handset maker by sales in the second quarter leapfrogging Nokia. and Research In Motion., on a nearly fourfold jump in deliveries from a year earlier, according to research firm IDC.

“The Galaxy S II is a quality, high-end smartphone and is a real alternative to the iPhone,” said Ramon Llamas, analyst with IDC. “You can point to Samsung’s high-end portfolio as contributing a great deal to their sales growth, so this is a very important phone for them.”

The Galaxy S II, which runs on the Google Android OS is already available in Australia. In July the South Korean company said it sold five million S II handsets in the first 85 days.