[Verizon Droid Charge] Cruiserdude:
My guess is that if it does release next month, it won't be LTE. I'm sure we'll get an LTE version, but I wouldn't expect them to release it until a few months from now. The Charge is still selling strong, and VZW marketing has got to be doing backflips because the Bionic is finally about to come out. I wouldn't expect them to kill sales of their two LTE Droids with something that's better in every way and doesn't have Droid branding. Not to mention there's the new Sammy slider that appears to be pretty much a Charge with a keyboard, so it wouldn't make sense for a LTE GS2 to drop next month and kill the sales of two existing Samsung devices.

It's always smart to have one flagship superphone, and now VZW gets to have two because there's 3g phones and 4g phones. But I wouldn't expect them to crowd out the 4g phones just yet. Best to let current 4g sales ride, and give the Bionic its time in the sun (whether it deserves it or not after all that delay). After the D3 has been out about a month or so, they could release a 3G GS2 as another flagship device. That way they offer different choices to consumers, with the GS2 being a more desirable device but the Bionic being very similar, and offering LTE. Or they can choose the Charge or the new slider if they really want a S-AMOLED+ screen and LTE, especially considering many customers aren't likely to know how much difference the new Exynos makes, or that its even different.

Then, a few months from now they can release an LTE GS2 and hit the market with something else new. Whether its just like the other GS2's but with LTE, or is a Droid Charge 2 would depend mostly on Verizon's Marketing dept. and whether Sammy was able to keep the phone the same size with a rev2 LTE chipset. If the 3G GS2 is still selling well and VZW is still pushing LTE as more of a niche thing by then, they may elect to call it a Charge 2, though a GS2 branded device seems more likely.

All this is speculation, but it seems to make the most sense to me. Verizon is interested in contracts, not device sales. Yet creating the illusion of choice through different devices is a great way to increase sales. Its the same way GM sells cars. You have all these different choices, yet your money is still going to the same place. They want to have devices to fill every niche, but not release things too early and kill existing device sales, as well as to allow them to spread out launches so they always have something new and exciting.

Granted, this frustrates informed customers like us, keeping us from upgrading when eligible because there's always something new, or making those with more means buy new phones all the time off-contract. However, we make up a small minority of their customer base, most don't read anything and just go into the store when their contract is up and pick out what they like from what's available. And they draw eligible customers from other carriers with whatever device is popular at the time.

No telling how they'll let the next iPhone affect all this, or if Samsung decides they want an LTE GS2 device in stores before late fall and makes it happen. But I still see that as the most likely scenario, that VZW will sell a 3g version soon and an LTE version later.