I would like to to see this come out next week on the 19th (hell, I would have liked to seen the Trophy out months ago) but I am leaning towards a release date of the 26th.
The Microsoft Windows Phone special event is on the 24th. It is expected that this event will be a preview of the Mango update which I believe it will be. However, I also think that they will announce WP7 on Verizon this same day. Here is why I suspect this will happen.
1. The event falls on a Tuesday which is the day Verizon typically announces phones.
2. The invites to the event are red and the the Trophy on the invite has red tiles, which just happens to be Verizon's color.
3. Verizon typically releases phones on Thursdays. The 26th will be two days after the MS special event and the last Thursday before June. This entire time Verizon has claimed that the phone would be out by June.
I really do hope that the Trophy will be released next week as I both need and want a new phone. My old Omnia running Windows Mobile is on it's last legs. I am not a fanboy of any one manufacturer or OS but I just bought an iPad 2 and it has me considering an iPhone more everyday.
With the iPhone, I won't have to repurchase my apps over again. The Apple app selection is huge and IMO the hardware design of the phone looks great. However, I love the UI of WP7 and I am big fan of the Zune music service. I just wish Verizon would release the damn Trophy so that I can move onto my next gadget to obsess over
Maybe, Verizon is holding back on the release of the Trophy until just after the MS Event because Verizon will be the first to bring a phone to market with some Mango love! Pfft...yeah right.