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It’s February 24th, folks, and guess what phone you can’t go out and buy right now? As the Motorola XOOM sees its self put onto store shelves, the HTC Thunderbolt has yet to be given an official launch date. Getting a bit ridiculous, isn’t it? One eager Roseville Best Buy says you may want circle March 4th on your calendar, though. Take it with a grain of salt – word from third-party retailers has been wrong before – but it’s something, dammit. [via Android Police]
[Update]: And now reports originating from BGR are backing this date up. Someone contacted them who attended a VIP event for the Thunderbolt (and took pictures for proof, of course) where they allegedly set this phone to be launched on either March 3rd or 4th. Awesome! We’ll be waiting.
PS: Yes, I realize the 4th of March isn’t a Thursday and that the tweet got it wrong. Not much of a story there.
This IS getting ridiculous, Quentyn. 24th, 28th, March…I want my TBolt! I wonder if there is a technical problem, or if they are waiting for more stock to avoid the DInc debacle where phones were in short supply and backorders were taking almost 2 months? I am only speculating. What would be REALLY cool is if they were being upgraded to Gingerbread (ya, I know, but a guy can dream, right?) Hopefully, it wont be delayed much further.
haha I just sent a tip in about best buy calling my friend and saying March. It was an automated message.
I also just noticed that it was sent via iPhone. I wonder if this is BS or not. I signed up for email notifications from VZW, and havent received any new yet. Time will tell. I am really looking forwards to getting a TBolt, not just for the LTE radio, but to also try the new Sense, the lockscreen customizability, etc. Even though it’s going to be rooted and themed, I still think having a higher level of customizability out of the box is a beautiful thing. Hopefully more manufacturers *cough motorola* takes notes on this AND the unlocked bootloader.
FYI Phandroid, its Roseville, not Rosewill…
May as well be July 4th. I have been patient but this is getting down right ridiculous! Motorola has their new dual core processor Atrix coming out soon. Its a VERY nice phone. If it comes out before the Thunderbolt then Verizon just lost a sale.
Until Verizon unlocks their lips and gives us some real information then I can only assume that something is wrong with the Thunderbolt or the LTE network, and as long as they never give a release date then when it does come out .. it was never late.
March 4th is a Friday. So, perhaps they meant “Thursday, March 4th” of a different year.
You can’t trust anything Best Buy says. Btw, did you notice that it says THURSDAY? MARCH 4TH IS ON A FRIDAY.
Raragaga!
Haha. Nice one Verizon
More Thunderbolt BS speculation. That’s all BestBuy can do, speculate. This phone is getting old really fast.
March 4 would be good for me because my new any two is up on march 1 but i know the original launch date was march 17 so if it comes out before that I would be happy anything after that then ill be mad look for the droid bionic
Yet another setback. Don’t the phone companies know that it is bad for pr. Forget the Thunderbolt. The Nexus S is the way to go. Its an awesome phone with the amoled screen to die for. GO SAMSUNG!!…
Thats not even an official Twitter webpage lol
I think it would be AWESOME to STORM the Verizon stores this weekend and form friendly fun protests with signs and chants and marches, etc to create more chaos and publicity over the Thunderbolt!!! Who’s in???
If they don’t realease this phone in the next week the phone will die before its day
@marc
The phone already is going to die by the time they release it they will have a few other 4g lte phones so this one wont be in the spot light anymore.
Carl: The Atrix is already out.
Blame Verizon, they have no idea how to announce or launch a phone. This whole Thunderbolt disaster is all to familiar, it happened last spring whith the Incredible, last summer with Droid X, and last fall with Fascinate. I thought they would have learned from the iphone launch that if you just let your customer know that a phone is coming and when, you can market and advertise properly having good early order and sales numbers. Think about this for a second, if you didn’t follow any tech blogs or know that this phone was announced at CTS by HTC(not verizon) would you even know it was coming out? If Verizon would have marketed this phone,(first 4g phone on their network), properly it would have done huge things for their business. Dumb Verizon you’ll just never learn, your customers deserve better.
It’s the INCREDIBLE debacle all over again.
Verizon rep confirmed to me yesterday that the TB was being pushed back from 2/28. He didn’t know when it would be released so it appears the wait goes on.
This sucks
@ Carl the atrix has been released or shall I say uncaged!!
The same Best Buy here in Denver who said it would come out on the 14th is now telling me the 28th. Who knows at this point. By the time this phone’s released the Droid Bionic/iPhone 5 will be right behind it. I just wish Verizon would stop playing with my emotions and advertising the TB with NO REAL INFORMATION.
Best buy needs to shut up. They keep vomiting out bad information that’s pissing off the public. Verizon needs to open their mouths for once!
I never believe what BB say. I think they just want to take people’s money. That’s why I didn’t spend the $50 they wanted which according to them, to hold the phone. I think they have no integrity at all. If they not sure when the TB will come out, they need to stop doing false advertisement. What make them think they could sell the TB before Verizon?
I called 2 BBs in Vegas last night and they said the same exact thing (sounded scripted) “It’s been pushed back. Not sure when. Possibly Sunday.”
What I find incredibly hilarious is that before the bionic, I wanted this phone. My contract with tmo ends march 4th. I don’t think I’m getting this phone. Imma wait for the bionic.
I was told by HTC that there are software issues they are working on and that is the reason for the delay. They couldn’t confirm a date as they don’t want to upset any more people. A vague release date was first week of March, so March 4th could be near the date. At this point, we just need to wait for it or move on.
Ok so if this device keeps seeing delays, how is BestBuy able to keep running promo. in the weekly add? sure it does not show a date, but why even have it in there if its not being sold. And as for the whole preorder thing, what a sneaky way to get people excited about a “myth” of a phone.
Yesterday a VZW representative informed me that the official unofficial date was February 28th
BB just goes with what they hear as well… BS!!
Apple is coming out with a thunderbolt macbook, they’re buying the name from htc and verizon. Since verizon has to bend over to have the iphone, probably has to bend over for this too to keep the iphone.
How can anything be confirmed if the news didn’t come from vzw? This while whole situation is beyond ridiculous. This new tipster better post proof soon!
This phone used to send chills up my leg, now it makes me want to throw-up. When does that Bionic come out? I might just wait until then.
BRG.com has pictures of this so called source at a VIP event to anounce the launch date. It’s the best we have to go on.
Sorry it’s bgr.com. This phone has made me so crazy that I can’t even spell anymore!!!
BGR sources have been wrong on the Thunderbolt release date already. They’re full of it!
Man…at least you guys can get updates (false or not) @ BB. I went to mine last week and asked about pre-ordering the TB and it seemed like they had no idea what I was talking about. Today I went to my local VZW store and @ first the lady told me it would be out @ the end of the month. Then she went to go ask someone and came back with ” It’ll be released sometime in mid-March.” Frustrating to say the least.
One phone three channels (best buy, vzw and htc) and none of them can get the story straight. In this day and age of mass communication its amazing one of them would not set the story straight.
The continual lying and deception only makes the consumer public more distrusting. I would rather be given the truth even if its bad news, rather than being mislead by speculation.
YES!!! The TRUTH!! Because the TRUTH, shall set them free!!!
Well I would not say the truth will set them free. Though if one of them (best buy, vzw or htc) actually grew a pair and told the truth for the delays, it would save some serious face to the consumers.
I’ve always said, if I don’t physically see the phone, is not out yet…I don’t believe in rumors. BB is a third party store and they don’t know what they are talking about. By the time the Thunderbolt get released, HTC will have Thunderstorm or perhaps bestbuythought, ,or bestbuydumb well, whatever they’ll have, it will beat the Thunderstorm.