New HTC Ad Features Video Chatting on Thunderbolt, Skype Mobile to Blame for Delay?

HTC released an ad today talking about all of the innovations we see through their line of smartphones and the one that we can’t seem to get away from, the Thunderbolt, has a starring role.  When the phone appears at the 23 second mark, video chatting through Skype Mobile is the highlight and one of the major selling features that Verizon couldn’t stop talking about when announcing it at CES.  It definitely looks amazing, but is it also the reason for an apparent delay?  

Our inboxes started filling up this afternoon with rumors suggesting exactly that.  We first reported on Skype Mobile missing the phone’s launch (here and here), but are now hearing that VZW may be holding everything back while they wait for it to be ready.  If you look at the TBolt’s HTC and Verizon pages, they are clearly selling the heck out of Skype, but we should remind you all that there wasn’t a working version anywhere at CES that we could find.  And it wouldn’t make a ton of sense to release a phone with one of its top 5 selling features inactive, especially with word that 4G mobile hotspot could be on hold as well.

This is all definitely rumor, but after seeing Amazon getting rid of a release date, Verizon removing the Tbolt teaser ad, and Best Buy continuing on without zero knowledge of price or official availability, we’re not sure when we’ll see this phone.  Oh, and our friendly industry Panda has made reference to the phone being pushed way up and is not surprised to see everything getting a little crazy.

And here is that new HTC commercial…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md52PdldJ1U

Cheers Brian!