Verizon LTE Phone Release Dates?

[Preach2k]

Verizon 4G LTE Phone Release Dates?

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The most popular question seen on Twitter is easily, “When is [insert 4G device] coming out?”

• HTC Thunderbolt – End of February, early March
• Samsung SCH-i510 – March
• LG Revolution – March, early April
• DROID BIONIC – Early Summer, June

Now, this is speculation at this time. We’re just going with every little detail that’s been dropped at our doorstep and are then attempting to piece the story together. All I can say is, can these get here fast enough? Anyone else bored with all of the current devices?


by Kellex


Source

 

[mbshooter]

Probably when they figure out the 4G pricing for the phone plans. Thats just my guess.

 

[Droid101]

All the rumors (take it for what its worth) seem to peg the Droid bionic for a end of march-beginning of April release

 

[kodiak799]

All the rumors (take it for what its worth) seem to peg the Droid bionic for a end of march-beginning of April release

A June release would be hugely disappointing (not to me, personally, with no upgrade until a few months later) mainly because I'm hoping Moto comes out with a more powerful device in late summer. I mean, it's a great device but we only saw 4 phones at CES and you have to figure there's at least 4 more phones of comprable power, probably better, due the second half of the year.

Can't see the Bionic being that late given the Atrix is supposedly out early March.

 

[rybnik]

All the rumors (take it for what its worth) seem to peg the Droid bionic for a end of march-beginning of April release

A June release would be hugely disappointing (not to me, personally, with no upgrade until a few months later) mainly because I'm hoping Moto comes out with a more powerful device in late summer. I mean, it's a great device but we only saw 4 phones at CES and you have to figure there's at least 4 more phones of comprable power, probably better, due the second half of the year.

Can't see the Bionic being that late given the Atrix is supposedly out early March.

According to our trusty black_man_x's clever poem..it sounds like we may not see the Bionic 'til Early May or even June (depending on how much time a "scant" is) He says "After Passover" which this year is April 18th...

For the Android Heads.. a wee bit of poem… Life, politics and the confessions of a Tech addict…

See, by then, we may already have word on the phones that will come out at the end of this year, which may well include something of a 2011 equivalent of the Droid x....With New every two canceled..I want to make sure I get something I will be happy with for a good long while!

 

[kodiak799]

According to our trusty black_man_x's clever poem..it sounds like we may not see the Bionic 'til Early May or even June (depending on how much time a "scant" is) He says "After Passover" which this year is April 18th...

Fair points. I forgot that VZW has 4 CES handsets, plus the IPhone, and they are likely going to space all of those 4-6 weeks apart. I think the Bionic would (or could) be ready sometime in March but it will be released whenever VZW has it slated to.

Sadly, could be late May for the Bionic, then late June for the IP5, and that takes us up until August when hopefully we do see a 2011 version of the DX or DInc.

Theoretically, the true "LTE beasts" most of us were anxiously anticipating for early Q2 aren't going to be out until late Q3/early Q4.

 

[Martin030908]

Waiting til June for the Bionic to launch is going to hurt Moto... with the iPhone coming, HTC having a new device, and LG launching a device.... people have upgrades and are itching to use them... being last to the party isn't going to help.

YOMV

 

[rybnik]

Yep..That is what I'm thinking as well..
Anyway, I think its probably better to expect things to go like this, then (if) something comes out sooner, we can be pleasantly surprised...rather than disappointed like with what happened to the HTC Thunderbolt (which barely even resembles the IncHD) we all thought would come last December...lol!

 

[rybnik]

Waiting til June for the Bionic to launch is going to hurt Moto... with the iPhone coming, HTC having a new device, and LG launching a device.... people have upgrades and are itching to use them... being last to the party isn't going to help.

YOMV

However, the Bionic is the only Dual-core device currently announced for Verizon...That may give it a leg up.

 

[Martin030908]

Waiting til June for the Bionic to launch is going to hurt Moto... with the iPhone coming, HTC having a new device, and LG launching a device.... people have upgrades and are itching to use them... being last to the party isn't going to help.

YOMV

However, the Bionic is the only Dual-core device currently announced for Verizon...That may give it a leg up.

I agree, and I believe that's why it'll be the last one out (of the mentioned CES devices). But by June, the Bionic won't be the only dual-core phone on the horizon... which will hurt it. Seems like a rock and a hard place to me.

 

[rybnik]

I agree, from my POV, I think I might want something a little better than the Bionic, don't get me wrong, the Bionic seems like a great device...just not quite as good as the Optimus 2x or even more so..the Atrix. It does seem that positioning the Bionic like this will turn it in to another Droid Eris....I want the next X caliber device..Thin but with all the benefits of these latest devices.. FFC, same QHD level display Dual Core HDMI and 1930mAh battery!

Is this too much to ask for?

 

[kodiak799]

I agree, and I believe that's why it'll be the last one out (of the mentioned CES devices). But by June, the Bionic won't be the only dual-core phone on the horizon... which will hurt it. Seems like a rock and a hard place to me.

Mostly guessing, but what might be happening is VZW telling the mfr what they want in each phone and when it will be slotted. Try to space them 4-6 weeks apart and make sure each has some incremental upgrade or differentiating feature so that, for 4-6 weeks, it's the latest and greatest for a batch of upgrades in that timeframe. Remember most users are on an upgrade cycle and are going to tend not to wait (most won't even know what's in the pipeline).

Might seem unfair that the Thunderbolt gets a leg up and will continue to sell even when newer devices make it relatively obsolete pretty quickly, but perhaps that's the trade-off for HTC deliberately withholding features/hardware for when VZW wants to slot it.

It's an interesting balancing act until the hardware becomes, essentially, a commodity (and we seem to be getting close). At that point, perhaps all bets are off and we start to see some truly exceptional, out-of-the-box design and features when mfrs can't differentiate on hardware any more.

 

[rybnik]

I agree, and I believe that's why it'll be the last one out (of the mentioned CES devices). But by June, the Bionic won't be the only dual-core phone on the horizon... which will hurt it. Seems like a rock and a hard place to me.

Might seem unfair that the Thunderbolt gets a leg up and will continue to sell even when newer devices make it relatively obsolete pretty quickly, but perhaps that's the trade-off for HTC deliberately withholding features/hardware for when VZW wants to slot it.

It's an interesting balancing act until the hardware becomes, essentially, a commodity (and we seem to be getting close). At that point, perhaps all bets are off and we start to see some truly exceptional, out-of-the-box design and features when mfrs can't differentiate on hardware any more.

By hardware becoming a commodity do you mean, all the phones having almost the same specs, it just comes down to the quality of the parts, or what?
Like say a Vizio LCD TV vs a Samsung LCD TV?

 

[kodiak799]

By hardware becoming a commodity do you mean, all the phones having almost the same specs, it just comes down to the quality of the parts, or what?

More or less, and I don't expect quality of parts to be a huge deal. And not to say that some won't try to differentiate on specs, but like the 12MP camera at some point it becomes overkill and there's no real value to the consumer.

When I say "commodity" I mean there's not really any hardware you can add or upgrade that will enable you to charge much of a premium (in PC's, at least, tech drives prices down and you have upgrades to maintain price but most new boxes are all getting the same upgrades). Heck, I'm waiting for a streamlined mfring process where cell phones made-to-order becomes the norm.

It's all going to play out like the PC industry in part because in a year or two the cell is going to be a serious competitor to netbooks/tablets/laptop's/desktops. For what it's worth, nearly all the margin in the PC business goes to just the OS and processor - the profits on putting the box together are blechhh. So when people say the PC is a commodity they mean margins for assembling the box are razor thin.

 

[rybnik]

Ah..But in the PC industry, there aren't really contract costs built in. People pay the full price for the device and that is it. Cell phones are almost all subsidized purchases, although I don't know how much the carriers pay the actual manufacturers, what I do know is that we, consumers are paying WAY more than we would if we were just buying PCs....I don't really see that changing. The carriers will figure out some way of stringing along the consumers, just as they do now...After all, processors and form factor and (some ) other hardware features keep coming along..albeit, slowly.