Shipping of the Galaxy Nexus is believed to happen on the 10th of November for $300 with a contract.

This confirmation comes a little late because Google’s staff has already announced an LTE edition at Verizon. Still not answered is the question regarding an eventual exclusivity for the carrier. Samsung’s interest page has mentioned seven major carriers in the United States, but might have rather been gauging interest than representing a commitment to launching on all seven at once.

The device is the first Nexus model of all on Verizon and is one of the few models with a pure Android install during the two years from the original Motorola Droid. The headliner of Samsung is probably very important for Verizon since it skipped the Galaxy S II, saying that it needed a better rival for the iPhone 4S.

The Galaxy S II has been well –received, but it is known to be a little slower and to have lower resolution than Apple’s iPhone 4S. Verizon seems to have dropped its plans for LTE because of the lack of space in the body of the Galaxy S II, which is smaller and thinner.

Many critics have believed that Verizon would buy Sprint to overcome the deficit of about thirty million subscribers. Sprint has already generated concerns that bringing eighty percent of phone subscribers in the United States on a single network would be anti-competitive. A deal of Sprint and Verizon would lead to a more established duopoly and would make life difficult for US Cellular, or Cricket, or any small carrier.

AT&T has argued that its buyout of T-Mobile would conform to national goals as eighteen of the largest twenty urban areas had at least four carriers, but many of them were hamstrung by either device selection or lack of wireless spectrum which they could use. Either aspect would be exacerbated if the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile finishes within a year.

The lack of a merger with Verizon could be even more damaging for Sprint. The carrier may have the chance to still remain independent, but has only just started to add regular subscription customers, while it is continuing to loose hundreds of millions of dollars quarter after quarter. The announced T-Mobile deal associated with the lack of a Verizon deal for itself would mean cutting off a major source of funding.

Verizon has announced its intention of using the same pricing as for the current iPad + MiFi bundles. It offers contract-free data for $20 per 1GB per month, $35 for 3GB, $50 for 5GB and $80 for 10GB.

The launch of the iPad 2 indirectly is a step back for Verizon’s flexibility. MiFi users are still able to share the 3G connection of their tablets with a series of other four devices beyond the iPad. Once the integrated 3G edition arrives, the connection is limited to the single device without Personal Hotspot support extending to iOS 4.3 on the tablet. As an EVDO device, it remains locked to Verizon and cannot be used for 3G on voyages to other countries, unlike the HSPA 3G version.

The benchmarks do not include those instances in which tests failed or did not complete properly. For example, AT&T iPhone users have frequently had problems with slow or even inexistent 3G data in some cities, especially those situated in the San Francisco Bay Area. Coverage areas were not addressed too, Verizon having a larger overall coverage map, but occasionally having no coverage at all or a reduced one versus AT&T.

However, both providers were ranked well behind some international providers when performing additional tests. For instance, Israel’s Pelephone was about twice as fast, with 3.3Mbps downstream and 1.3Mbps upstream. Another carrier, the A1 from Austria, was situated just behind, with 3.1Mbps downstream but as fast upstream as Pelephone.

Both Bell and Telus Canadian carriers were also very close, being fastest in downloads and uploads respectively. Bell attained 2.9Mbps in downloads versus 1.3Mbps in uploads. Telus was a bit lower in downloads, at 2.8Mbps, but succeeded to hit 1.5Mbps in uploads.

Of course, there are factors that can influence download speeds and which are not necessarily controllable by the carrier, like the density of the population or even the preference for a particular handset. Many of the carriers, however, have had plenty of time to prepare for or find ways to compensate the data-heavy devices of Apple on their networks.

A real impact of the new iPhone on Verizon is expected to appear in the days to come, after hundreds of thousands of iPhones would be activated on the network following the launch at Verizon’s stores and Apple’s. it is known that AT&T has had many troubles when activating phones on launch day because of a sheer volume of customers overwhelming its servers. Even later, there were many compounded problems with the oversaturation of the network. Verizon has emphasized that it had well prepared its network to avoid such problems. The future will show whether preparations were satisfactory or not and enough to provide a smooth integration of the iPhone in Verizon’s network.

Most customers have yet to receive their phones and would have them during the next days. Many devices are now at the last stage sorting facilities for UPS or FedEx, depending on who dealt with the package. This split in shipping is pretty unusual for Apple, as the company prefers to choose a single delivery firm for major launches. This time it may have chosen two shipping partners to avoid possible problems with tens of thousands of pre-orders and orders above those destined to online and retail customers.

During the past year, Apple began to adopt a more relaxed attitude towards iPhone launches. It shipped AT&T units early enough, although it would not start to activate the smartphones until the official moment of the launch. The model destined to Verizon’s network puts significantly less pressure on Apple since it has no major feature or change in the software with the exception of the different cellular network support.

Mead added that the staff of Verizon had worked hard to strengthen and scale their systems as they expected heavy traffic on the website. However, the capacity still was not enough as errors appeared for some buyers. Verizon’s chief did not quantify the amount as Apple only rarely allows statistics not representing a large figure for the firm as a whole, not only for the carrier.

The numbers are only supposed to magnify during the launch to the general public, with pre-orders starting on the 9th of February, while retail shops would pick up the device a day later. The release at Verizon confirmed that certain Walmart stores would get the Verizon iPhone just on day one, as well as Best Buy, Apple and Verizon itself.

The performance of the iPhone on Verizon answers questions regarding early adoption but may also signify that Android might have problems at the carrier. It is true that phones based on Android have generated large first-day sales, such as the Droid or the Droid X, but they never reached the extent of the iPhone launch. Very important to catching up with Apple in share, sustained sales did not show very clear how many of them were generated by genuine preference for Google’s platform and how many were only the reflection of the refusal to switch to AT&T.

As Motorola already said, a certain slowdown in Android sales on Verizon’s network has already been observed even before the arrival of the iPhone on the network.

This broad-based discounting is not characteristic for Verizon and is intended to keep clients buying smartphones during these days before Apple will join the network. Verizon has high expectations for the new iPhone a already has seen customers avoiding to buy Android devices. In the weeks preceding the confirmation of the iPhone deal on Verizon, Motorola has seen a sales downturn, as many leaks were indicating that the iPhone would be available soon.

The sale comes after leaks confirming that rebates would be available for smartphones with prices of $150 or higher. This change was attributed to Apple as well, because it often maintains strict control over prices. Some categorized the change as being positive since it does not allow Verizon to establish significantly higher pre-rebate price and to skim supplementary profit from those customers who simply forget to mail in their rebates the right way.

The chosen date in February is only a public launch date. Verizon subscribers will be allowed to pre-order the device starting on the 3rd of February. Online orders will be possible starting on the 10th of February as well as at retail stores, either from Apple or Verizon.

An important technical limitation, unlike standard iPhones based on GSM, is that the Verizon model will not be able to handle voice and data at the same time. The flaw is normal for CDMA devices, but not for Verizon.

Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon, said that talks with Apple began since 2008 and testing took about an entire year. The network of Verizon is believed to have been given an increased capacity for this launch, so that overloading problems like AT&T continues to experience, be avoided. It is known that such problems appear particularly after releasing new models.

This year, Microsoft used CES to present the US edition of HTC’s HD2 for T-Mobile. The company is believed to make the new mobile operating system a major element of Ballmer’s keynote for this edition.

The HTC 7 Pro will have a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a QWERTY keyboard, 8GB of storage, a 3.6-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 480×800, up to 16GB of built-in storage and a five-megapixel camera. The HTC Trophy, already available in European countries on GSM, has a touch-only design, a 3.8-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 480×800, 16GB of onboard storage and a similar camera.