Hmmm... I just wrote this as its own post in the forum, but it seems topical to share it here with the current conversation. You can see the original here:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus/445161-verizons-recent-history-launch-dates.html
With the discussions in a handful of threads insisting Verizon is dragging their feet on this Galaxy Nexus launch (and frankly, I don't share this viewpoint), I did a little archive digging through the past year of VZW's LTE & iPhone launches, to establish how Verizon *really* launches products.
This is nothing new, and these various dates have been brought up by others in the mega-thread and elsewhere on the forums, but I wanted to put it all in one place. And I didn't include all the pre-order info.
__ PHONE ____________ ANNOUNCED_RELEASED_DAYS
iPhone 4 ______________ 1/11 ___ 2/10 ___ 30 Feb 3rd pre-orders announced on
2/2
HTC Thunderbolt _______ 3/15 ___ 3/17 ___ 2
Samsung Droid Charge __ 4/20 ___ 4/28 ___ 8
LG Revolution _________ 5/25 ___ 5/26 ___ 1
Motorola Droid Bionic _ 9/07 ___ 9/08 ___ 1
iPhone 4S ____________ 10/06 __ 10/14 ___ 8
Motorola Droid Razr __ 10/18* _ 11/11 ___ 24 *availability date announced
11/9; pre-orders on
10/26
HTC Rezound __________ 11/03 __ 11/14 ___ 11
Samsung Galaxy Nexus _ 10/21* _ 11/?? ___ ?? *availability date not announced
Apple iPhone Event ___ 10/4 ___ 10/14 __ 10 VZW announcement 2 days after Apple event
Google Event San Diego 10/7 _______________ postponed
Google Event Hong Kong 10/18 __ 11/17*__ 30 *availability date not announced by Google
Google Event London __ 10/28 __ 11/17 __ 20 VZW announcement 3 days after HK event
I see now that Verizon hasn't been as consistent as I thought, but I believe this further confirms that they like to play their product launches close to the vest when they feel it's in their interest.
In the case of Razr vs. Galaxy Nexus, there's clearly an interest in heavily promoting the Razr so I continue to have no reason to think the Nexus is going to get anything but one or two day notice — hopefully in line with Google's worldwide launch date of the 17th. And this falls in line with the epic Thunderbolt / LTE launch — remember how heavily anticipated (and "delayed") that one was?
The Rezound launch is a bit of a paradox in all this — early press release, soft pre-launch, little noise — but as has been pointed out in other threads, it's complicated launching three big phones in such a short span.
It's clear the iPhone launches are handled differently than Android, so we should probably just ignore those dates, although it is an interesting comparison vs. Google.
It's all speculation on my part, but I'm still betting that Google wanted to steal some of Apple's thunder and had planned to have this out in October, in line with the original leaks, but bugs or manufacturing problems conspired to push everything back. And from Verizon's standpoint, they're probably so quiet on this device because they know it's going to market itself (and who cares if they piss a few of us die-hards off? It's not like we're going to jump to AT&T and buy a Skyrocket.
oops!)
