According to HTC....

[pattikate]

I was speaking with a customer service phone rep from HTC the other day. He told me the reason for Thunderbolt's delay had to do with a 'glitch'. He wouldn't elaborate and that only leads to more speculation.

I realize we're all just speculating here, but has anyone heard any reports about what type of glitch the HTC rep could be referring to? Battery issues? 4G connectivity? Or something different? And are you at all concerned about buying the T'Bolt before consumer reviews are posted? My main concern is with battery life.

Any insight?

 

[DaWolf85]

Probably skype, because it's baked into the hardware and skype tends to be a glitchy, buggy mess. Just my opinion.

 

[BzB]

that statement about a glitch is very ambiguous. i wouldn't be surprised if the rep didn't have any information on the problem other than knowing there was some type of problem.

based on info pilfered from across the interwebs the "glitch" seems to be related to how the TB handled the hand-off from 4g to 3g. this also had to do with how vzw's network was provisioned. apparently there was a firmware update to the TB along with some fine tuning with the vzw network that has resolved the issue or at least made it bearable enough for them to release it.

the delay in resolving the issue was said to be related to vzw technicians being stretched thin as a result of beefing up the 3g network. i.e. support for the expected masses of iphone users. as that work leveled off they were able to reallocate those resources to working on the 4g issues. ...and here we are. finally!


edit - i know none of this to be fact. just information shared from those in the know and through discussions about the device. we have a few people who've had preproduction models and no obvious issues with the device jumped out, so i'd guess that the issues were network influenced/related.

 

[funkyb]

that statement about a glitch is very ambiguous. i wouldn't be surprised if the rep didn't have any information on the problem other than knowing there was some type of problem.

based on info pilfered from across the interwebs the "glitch" seems to be related to how the TB handled the hand-off from 4g to 3g. this also had to do with how vzw's network was provisioned. apparently there was a firmware update to the TB along with some fine tuning with the vzw network that has resolved the issue or at least made it bearable enough for them to release it.

the delay in resolving the issue was said to be related to vzw technicians being stretched thin as a result of beefing up the 3g network. i.e. support for the expected masses of iphone users. as that work leveled off they were able to reallocate those resources to working on the 4g issues. ...and here we are. finally!


edit - i know none of this to be fact. just information shared from those in the know and through discussions about the device. we have a few people who've had preproduction models and no obvious issues with the device jumped out, so i'd guess that the issues were network influenced/related.

I believe most of the above has been refuted in other places. The most plausable explaination is that there were battery issues caused by baking Skype into the OS. This possibility is supported by a few items:

- Several 'leaks' to engadget advised the same

- The HTC Thunderbolt was originally announced to include Skype Video built into the OS, but on release will not have this feature and all demo videos for use in retail stores had any reference to Skype removed from them.

- Any issues involving OS-level support for Skype require 3 parties to handle - VZW, HTC, and Skype, which would certainly make problem resolution a slow process with a lot of compartmentalized communication, hence the delays w/o information.

 

[BzB]

^ haven't seen anything to refute what i posted above. would be willing to look if you pointed me in the direction though.

everything that i've seen revolves around how the phone worked on the network and how/if it impacted battery life. i find it highly doubtful that a skype issue alone delayed the launch of the device. the way i see it, those purported network issues likely had more of an impact on how skype worked than vice versa.

this may end up being one of those things we never find out about. would be interesting to know the real deal.