Actually, they haven't given anywhere near a solid release date. The only thing HTC gave was 2012. The reason I think most are figuring soon is the builds that have leaked. They're not going to sit on a build for six months. The only reason for them to sit on a build at all is when there's a newer phone by the same manufacturer coming out. That way if people want the newer software they have to get the new phone or wait a week or two for the previous phone to get an update. That's how they've pretty much done it in the past.
Going by last year, most of the OEMs made a real effort to get their phone catalog updated, with HTC & Motorola doing the best job. Samsung & LG, not so much. Hell, the last official update for Samsung's Galaxy Nexus was launch day last December. There have been 2 or 3 builds since then, but none actually pushed OTA to the end users. I know one of the big deals with the Nexus is to root & rom the phone to your liking, but there are a lot of people who don't do that, and got the G-Nex for faster updates than manufacturer skinned phones. But so far that hasn't happened. It's almost like Verizon got it just to abandon it and discourage customers from wanting one in the future, because we all know how Verizon likes to keep iron fisted control on their phones.
