Alright, I'm breaking down and adding my "Verizon Rep" rumor to the fold. One of my good friends from college is a "manager" for VZ/VZN/VZW. He seems to know more than the average guy, but he's definitely not involved in development. He's involved with tech support and sales. I called him the other day to find out what he knew about the i760, and this is what he said (insert all standard rep disclaimers here):

1) He's spent time with the i760. "It's great".
2) Verizon really wants this unit to be solid. The phone has been in testing for months, and it hasn't passed yet. The delay is due to making the unit more stable (Insert all comments about what is causing the "instability" here).
3) The i760 is at least a month out - mentioned August.
4) I'll call you when it's available. (I was polite, and I didn't say, "I'll know when you do.")

He's not a VZ/VZN/VZW "fanboy" by any means, and I don't have any account with him (except that I think he still owes me like $15 from our freshman year - I need to do something about that). Whether August is just a "boiler plate" month that is being passed around internally or not is unknown, but I do believe he wasn't feeding me anything except what he understands to be correct.

There - I did it - I've gotten that out of my system. Thanks to everybody else who's actually adding "new information".

crmealey

I was told by a verizon official pretty far up the food chain that the I760 did not have a sammy chip....like I was previously told and that the broadcom deal was holding it up (of course he didnt say what kind of chip it had)....However now that Verizon has brokered a deal with Broadcom that holdup may be moving forward. Lets keep hoping things progress.....Everything I have heard about this phone is that its a pretty cool device....I can't wait to get my hands on it!!!

~the anticipating ryno

Let's see, so if they've been working on it all this time trying to make it (GIN) "stable" but then there is also this Broadcom deal...... Very convenient for them to be able to point at the Broadcom deal. If they just delivered the phone to us as Samsung built it (and Samsung has made some great UIs for their non-CDMA phones) I for one would have been much happier.

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Geckotek
http://geckotek.blogspot.com/

Has anyone heard anything about the possibility of Verizon fast-tracking the HTC Vogue and releasing it around or even before the i760? The i760 has been testing longer and so forth, but would Verizon possibly try to release the unofficial "official" iPhone killer first?

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Looking forward to http://www.whoneedsaniphone.com/ talk about the best of both worlds...

A number of replies have suggested that the i760's release was, or might have been, held up by the ITC's anti-Qualcomm ruling (before VZW made the Broadcom deal).

There is no evidence to support this theory. Like the x6800, the i760 is presumably grandfathered as it was "held for sale" prior to the cutoff date of 06/07/07. The ruling does not say that a device must have been launched by 06/07 to be allowed for importation. Note that the x6800/Mogul was not intro'd by Sprint for about 10 days following the ITC ruling.

VZW's settlement deal with BRCM is kinda odd for several reasons:

1) VZW is not the alleged patent infringer or even QCOM's customer for the affected chips. While VZW may spin its settlement as some sort of grand salute to its loyal subscribers, such is not the case. It may be that VZW will be seeking reimbursement from Sammy, LG, Pantech, palm, etc. for $6/unit, the amount VZW has agreed to pay BRCM. If not, will VZ shareholders take the hit? No, we'll be paying the tab: look for a hidden $0.14 monthly billing surcharge for the next 2 years ($0.14 x 24 x 60mm = ~$200mm).

2) The deal provides for royalties to BRCM of up to $40mm per quarter/$200mm lifetime, amounts that would cover the sale of 6.7mm units per quarter/33.3mm units lifetime. As VZW will not come anywhere near these figures from new subscribers, the intention seems to be to cover maybe 20mm replacement units, say, a third of VZW's subscriber base over a couple of years. The number of WM PPCs likely affected will be relatively small: figure a maximum of, what, 1.75mm WM devices out of the 33.3mm total?

3) Does this deal suggest that VZW has a new fleet of EvDO WM PPCs in the pipeline? No. VZW's known WM device schedule that might have been affected by the embargo is small: maybe the HTC x5800, the Q q9x, a Treo 800x and an "iPhone killer" (heh)? Clearly, the vast majority of units covered by the settlement over its life will be common EvDO flip phones with VCast and GIN.

A reasonable theory is that VZW made this deal to limit churn and protect its ability to sell high-margin, broadband-delivered content over the next two years. Presumably, royalty payments to BRCM end if the White House nixes the ruling or BRCM and QCOM settle.

This is the sort of twisted deal that only a "Mother" (Bell) could love.

--BAM

I was confused by that deal announcement too. At least for the i760, it should not have had an impact.

I can only guess that they know that QC needs to pay, and the it would impact future devices if not managed now.

In the end, we the customer will pay.

iPhone killer? Sorry, you can't spell "orgasm" without GSM
W960i*-*Overview*-* Sony Ericsson

The deal is actually more twisted and interesting than you have indicated, and your reference to a "Bell" is very on-target. If you look at the entire deal, it also includes an agreement to cooperate with Verizon Communications on FIOS and network devices that will help sell FIOS. The deal is not just about the phones at Verizon Wireless. If you add to that the recent movement of key VZW management to new three-letter positions at Verizon Communications, you begin to see that there is a change in management style and possibly substance coming to VC. Vodaphone is rumored to have encouraged this.

As to who will pay this bill for VZW, it may well be QCOM. VZW may insist that QCOM pay the $6/unit for all VZW phones or face a lawsuit from VZW for loss of revenue caused by an inability to release new phones due to QCOM's infringement (pretty ironic but I have no doubt VZW would continue to claim they release new phones all the time.) QCOM cannot afford that on top of everything else going against them at present.

How does BREW fit into this? It might be thought that QCOM might be very unhappy with VZW sabotaging them and cozing up to BRCM. VZW obviously relies on BREW to "control" the apps on its phones. Upon reflection however, how many CDMA carries are there for QCOM to sell BREW to? If they anger VZW by using BREW as a weapon, it would appear that VZW would just find an alternative and QCOM would be just that much more in a hole and possibly facing an expensive VZW lawsuit, even if just a nuisance one. Who can afford to bleed more in attorney's fees at this point? MediaFLO has just been passed over by the EU as a standard, so QCOM lost that opportunity as well.

It may just be that VZW has effectively put the nails in QCOM's coffin with regard to the dispute with BRCM over the patents dispute. Pity QCOM, they really are about as toothless as they could possibly be now. One wonders how long they can hold out without rolling over on this one and trying to move on. It has been 20+ years since the White House overturned an ITC ruling and with the VZW/VC/BRCM deal now public there is no incentive for the WH to get involved.

Just to stay on topic, I am hoping all who have decided the i760 meets their needs get one soon from VZW. I could not live with the specs and am currently using an HTC 6800 from Sprint for work until I can get one or a Kaiser from VZW (talk about optimistic!) for personal use as I have 7 lines of service with VZW.

The only thing that will save us is if the other service provider networks get to the level of service as VZW. Then we will see changes......

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VZW, It's 2008! Time to embrace technology, not suppress it. - oops too late I've moved on over to the iPhone w/ AT$T!