Whilst traveling through our local strip mall today, we had a chance encounter with a Verizon employee, if you call walking straight up to a Verizon employee and asking a chance encounter, where we learned a few extra small details about three mothership Android phones that are on the 2011 horizon. First, and perhaps most important, the Droid Bionic was on the list for requesting. Upon asking the release date for said phone, the rep smiled knowingly* and said, “while we don’t technically know, between you and me, soon.”

I say knowingly, but it may well have been deviously. Either way, it was an odd expression that your humble narrator would call one of the two odd expressions. After this, the employee noted that he was also “unsure in the same way, but could definitely confirm,” the releases of the Motorola ATRIX and the Droid 3. Whether or not this meant that they’d all be released on the same day (doubtful,) was not all that clear – and he wasn’t giving out any more specific specifics than that!

For more information on these telephones, head back to their respective portals: Droid 3, Motorola Atrix 4G, and Droid Bionic. Then check out a post that’s basically been beating up our post-view charts for the past week: Droid Bionic Release Now Mid-April [Says Verizon]. Can’t wait!

71 COMMENTS

  6. These local Verizon store employees don’t know anything about future models and release dates. Soon could mean within the next two months. I doubt we’re going to get the Bionic until mid May at the earliest, all the signs point to a last minute delay, why do you think Oppenheimer lowered their Motorola price target? It’s because the Bionic will not be released as early as expected and that’s going to cost them to lose a lot of customers to HTC Thunderbolts. Motorola needed to launch the Bionic within weeks of the Thunderbolt or lose out. Lots of VZW customers have been waiting since the fall for these two devices and now that Motorola can’t even announce a release date many are jumping on the HTC. I’m waiting for the bionic, but I’m not really expecting it until late May/early June. Hope I’m wrong.

    • And then there are those of us who will wait for a 1930mah battery and dual core instead of SETTLING and determining that in the grand scheme of things, a month or 6 weeks even is minutia amount of time in your total life span. Patience my ass the vulture said to the other vulture, I’m gonna kill me something!

    • Ive been waiting on the Bionic.. and I think you’re right the more and more they wait, the more customers they are going to loose. Ive been waiting, but I have my limits!

  10. I call BS. Show me your source that says the Atrix is coming to VZW.

    Hey androidcommunity, next time ask me for the info, my 3-year-old daughter gets all the inside info about Android handsets.

    Frigging mall employee. Give me a break.

  11. Wait, you’re listening to the opinion of a strip mall employee and reporting it as if it has some kind of weight? Come on.

  12. Great article. Do you also get your stock tips at the same strip mall from tellers at the bank?

    And such a definitive timeline, “soon”.

    First the Atrix is for Apple, the Bionic is the Verizon version. So right there this guy you were talking to is a bag of rocks.

    There has already been much more reliable information released about the release date. Search online and you will see that a supposed Verizon document saying that the Droid X2, Bionic, and Galaxy S2 will all be out in May. However there are now rumors that the Bionic may be delayed to early June due to the issues with the Thunderbolt.

  13. Great article. Do you also get your stock tips at the same strip mall from tellers at the bank?

    And such a definitive timeline, “soon”.

    First the Atrix is for Apple, the Bionic is the Verizon version. So right there this guy you were talking to is a bag of rocks.

    There has already been much more reliable information released about the release date. Search online and you will see that a supposed Verizon document saying that the Droid X2, Bionic, and Galaxy S2 will all be out in May. However there are now rumors that the Bionic may be delayed to early June due to the issues with the Thunderbolt.

  16. My son manages a very large Verizon corporate store. Even he doesn’t know release dates for phones until they are announced. Verizon announces their new phone on Fridays and then the release date is the following Thursday.

  17. I was talking to a guy who worked for a Cellular One 18 years ago and he said the Bionic will be out soon simply because they do something to your DNA when you are employed by a cellular company and you can “feel” it coming. So there you go.

  18. I hate posts like these. I’ve been to many verizon stores and talked to many different employees and let me tell you they know absolutely nothing about the products they sell, now having said that the product support over the phone is excellent and they do know their products and features.

  19. I hate posts like these. I’ve been to many verizon stores and talked to many different employees and let me tell you they know absolutely nothing about the products they sell, now having said that the product support over the phone is excellent and they do know their products and features.

  20. I work for Verizon Wireless doing tech support and the stores don’t know anything more than we do. Which is nothing, if anything tech support gets the training on new devices first. We have yet to get training. Don’t take anything the store tells you as fact even if they pretend to know something. In my experience the store hardly knows anything about the phones they sell and just want the commission from selling the most expensive phones.

    • uh. Not so fast *228. In your experience, which is TECH support; the act of reseting an down email account, troubleshooting voicemail. Not dealing directly with vendors such as motorola which stop by these such stores every two weeks to check in. Silly article agreed, your experience though, I personally know, isn’t exactly knowledge-based….outside of a call center

    • uh. Not so fast *228. In your experience, which is TECH support; the act of reseting an down email account, troubleshooting voicemail. Not dealing directly with vendors such as motorola which stop by these such stores every two weeks to check in. Silly article agreed, your experience though, I personally know, isn’t exactly knowledge-based….outside of a call center

      • FYI ted, all vendors visit the call center as well with the new devices before they are even released. Apparently both groups don’t really have a leg to stand on to fight each other since neither have been in each others position to do so.

    • I work as a Retail Rep for Verizon I agree with the fact that we dont know the launch date for anything until about 2 weeks ahead of time. As for the other stuff…he can kiss my butt each retail rep is diffrent and I apologize if he has had a bad experience before.

    • It’s funny to me that you said reps just want to sell the most expensive phone! If you truly know how our commission structure worked then you would know that we don’t make money on the cost of the phone. Therefore we could care less if we sell you the thunderbolt for 249.99 or the motorola citrus for $0.00 because we make the same amount of commission on either one. So please ppl do not listen to someone who obviously has no clue how Verizon reps get paid

    • Alright I see you are all pretty offended that I took a stab at store reps. This is just my experience I get old ladys calling in all the time who need assistance setting a wallpaper or getting to there contacts saying I don’t know why I bought this phone the guy said I needed it. Keep in mind what I know of store reps is what I get from customers who need help. I’m sure that there are alot that know what there doing and wouldn’t push top of the line phones onto people who really just wanna make phone calls.

      As for the release date of the Bionic and Charge I have a more than educated guess that the charge is coming out on 4/28 and the Bionic on 5/12.

  23. Atrix is only on crappyt&t i mean at&t or else i would have to go with it….Bionic is the Motorola for
    Verizon .
    I perfer the atrix but there is no way I’d ever switch back to att I’m sticking with
    Verizon and the bionic!

  24. Atrix is only on crappyt&t i mean at&t or else i would have to go with it….Bionic is the Motorola for
    Verizon .
    I perfer the atrix but there is no way I’d ever switch back to att I’m sticking with
    Verizon and the bionic!

  25. AS for me I am waiting on the Bionoc over the HTC Thunderbolt….. My EX-GF is Verizon store MGR and we are still good friends when I asked about the Bionic her words where WE DON”T KNOW Possible JUNE not to bust anyones bubble but we may be waiting a while. When I personally asked the Motorola REP about laptop dock like the atrix 4g he told me that was Exclusive to ATT so there is a lot of hipe about things I don’t see happening

  28. Here’s the thing:
    I am a VZW Sales rep, and the company does not tell us about any phone release until about a week before the public knows.
    People are just guessing.
    the Internet has more reliable info.

  29. I dont think the Bionic is cancelled..looks like theres a new Bionic twitter page:)

    check it out!!! twitter.com/droidbionic

  30. Even though the hardware specs for the Bionic would make any tech nerd get a boner, it’s still a phone that is made for a network that doesn’t exist for 90% of the country geographically. And it was my understanding that the current LTE network was for the USB antennas and not the phones anyway. I could be wrong about that though. Other than that, this article was crap. A shot in the dark claim that provided zero information above any other site claiming to know when the release date is.

  31. The LTE is for phones also. Yeah, thank god I’m in the 10% of the country that can handle these LTE phones!

    Yes, this article is crap. It’s more fun to make fun of this piece of crap article. Even though we are helping them make advertising money by coming to this page. Oh well.

    Who knows who created that twitter page? Lord knows if it’s on the internet, it must be true….

  32. Is the Bionic going to be coming out or not? Some say it’s scrapped but others say that’s just another rumor….anybody know for sure? Mary

  35. Wow I just reread this a second time to confirm the stupidity that was there. This article is terrible for so many reason and whoever wrote it should be fired.

    First, anyone who uses the word ‘whilst’ is a tool, period. This is not medieval times, you are not King Arthur. Just say “while” like everyone else.

    Secondly, you are going into strip malls and talking to random Verizon Wireless employees for your super duper secret inside information. As many others have already pointed out, VZW employees know less than your typical internet blogger about the release dates of upcoming phones and products. If they pretend to know anything about release dates they are either lying or guessing.

    Thirdly, the so-called, “few extra small details” was pathetic. So this rep basically said “I don’t know, but soon!” Stop the fucking presses, what a breaking story. This person told you nothing. What is soon? A week? A month? 3 months? Soon is subjective as hell, that wasn’t an answer. And I think EVERYONE expects it to come out sometime “soon.”

    Next this person goes to to say he was “unsure in the same way, but could definitely confirm,” the releases of the Motorola ATRIX and the Droid 3” Ummmmm…..what? So he basically confirmed that these phoes will come out? How is that news? Aside from the fact that the Atrix is an AT&T exclusive phone and the Bionic is essentially VZW’s version of said phone, confirming that they will come out is not news.

    And my favorite part, “Whether or not this meant that they’d all be released on the same day (doubtful,) was not all that clear – and he wasn’t giving out any more specific specifics than that!” Awww but he’s given you so much already!!! And I love the phrase “specific specifics” Classic!

    I really hope somebody didn’t get paid to write this shit of an article.

  42. As of 6/1/11, what is the latest news on veizon’s newest motorola 4g release date…. Bionic or what ever they will call it? ANXIOUS!!!

  43. As of 6/1/11, what is the latest news on veizon’s newest motorola 4g release date…. Bionic or what ever they will call it? ANXIOUS!!!

  44. ahhhh! im so ready to upgrade and im trying to hold out for this phone. WTF is taking it so long to be released? it better be pretty freaking close to perfection when it does come out. -__-

  46. So they say July 2011 this Bionic will come out. OMG!… WHEN IN JULY??? My wife has been bugging me to upgrade our phones, but I’m TRYING to wait until this freaking phone comes out. SHe is Driving me Bananas! She wants to get the NEW IPHONE and I want the Bionic…I hope Its worth the wait!

  47. ok I just spoke to a friend of mine that talked to a friend of his who he talked to a friend of a friend of his who talked to a friend who works in the Verizon top secret lab where he saw a date on a paper that was droid B 7/30/2012

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