Rumor: Samsung DROID Prime Headed Exclusively to Verizon as the First Device with Ice Cream Sandwich (Updated)

If you were infuriated by the report last week that the Samsung Galaxy S II would not find its way onto Verizon, then maybe this news will cheer you up a bit.   Everyone familiar with the Nexus Prime?  Well, a report this morning out of BGR’s camp suggests that it will actually be branded as the DROID Prime (SCH-i515) and will be an exclusive to Big Red as the first Ice Cream Sandwich device.  I know, you are as speechless as I am right now, but it gets better (assuming this is accurate).  Their report also includes a time line, suggesting that the device will be out in October to compete directly with the launch of the iPhone 5.

Update:  We reached out to our sources and they are highly skeptical of this being “DROID” branded.  The Bionic is the big “DROID” device for this year, so if the Prime does come to Verizon, I would expect it to be a Nexus instead.  While there is a chance that a Verizon version could be released before the other carriers, I’m not at this time willing to put money on it joining our favorite family of phones.

Update 2:  Some of our favorite Android Twitter personalities have weighed in as well:  TeamAndIRC, black_man_x and P3droid.  We all basically agree that a DROID Prime would be highly unlikely.

Update 3:  As I sat here all day trying to figure out a way for this to happen, I’ve come to this – Verizon could release a phone after the Bionic with DROID branding instead of Nexus that is made by Samsung as the first to run Ice Cream Sandwich.  They did it with the original DROID and Android 2.0 as well as the XOOM and Android 3.0.  So it’s not out of the question that they could do this for “4.0”, let’s just not expect it to be like a Nexus would be.  Expect bloatware, a semi-locked bootloader, but still stock (no skin).  With that said though, there is nothing on the “DROID” calendar that I have seen other than the DROID HD which is made my Motorola, not Samsung.  Does Verizon change their schedule constantly?  Most definitely, so changes could happen in the next two months.  Look at the Charge which was nameless until a month or so before it was released.

Thoughts that immediately come to mind:  Why release the Bionic on September 8, the HTC Vigor on October 6 and then the Prime shortly thereafter?  Seems like overkill to me and would almost expect the Prime to be pushed to November.  However, if the iPhone 5 does come out at the end of September or early October, I’m not sure either the Bionic or Vigor have enough appeal to compete with it.  The Android world would need something massive, like the first device running Android 4.0.

And, your thoughts?

Via:  BGR