{"id":11459,"date":"2010-07-26T15:26:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-26T19:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pocketpccentral.net\/newscenter\/2010\/07\/26\/is-the-droid-incredible-about-to-be-discontinued\/"},"modified":"2010-07-26T15:26:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-26T19:26:00","slug":"is-the-droid-incredible-about-to-be-discontinued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/computerhunter.us\/?p=11459","title":{"rendered":"Is the Droid Incredible About to be Discontinued?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HTCThe idea seemed impossible just a couple of weeks ago.  But recent events have moved it squarely into the maybe<\/em> column. I\u2019m not saying HTC is<\/u> on the verge of discontinuing the Incredible<\/a>, but there\u2019s now enough circumstantial evidence to make it a possibility.  <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

During the weekend of July 10, I was contacted by two unrelated people reporting they had been told, with different explanations, the Incredible was being discontinued.  The first said a Verizon sales rep told him the Droid X would soon take the Incredible\u2019s place in the carrier\u2019s Android lineup; the other said a Verizon salesperson told him not to bother ordering an Incredible (which was \u2013 and is \u2013 backordered) because it was about to be discontinued.<\/p>\n

I largely dismissed the idea that one of the most widely-praised Android smartphones would be discontinued barely two months after its release.  But I did assume there was some truth in the information provided to these two men.  The AMOLED display used in the Droid Incredible had been trickling out of Samsung\u2019s production facilities much more slowly than HTC wished, which was responsible for the smartphone\u2019s chronic backorder status<\/a>.  Perhaps a new version of the Incredible with a different SKU was in the pipeline, which may have caused the Verizon reps to think the Incredible wasn\u2019t long for this world.<\/p>\n

So I contacted Verizon Wireless PR for clarification.  I assumed the response would be something along the lines of a flat-out denial or vague information on a display technology transition.  It wasn\u2019t.  <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

When I got a response, the message read:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cVerizon Wireless or HTC have not made an announcement about the Incredible. It’s a popular device and we continue to sell it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Continue<\/em> to sell it?  Not \u201cwill continue to sell it\u201d?  Hmm\u2026  Qualified and evasive wording is nothing new in PR, but if the Incredible\u2019s shelf-life was assumed to be the normal year or so, why the couched response?<\/p>\n

Then, today, HTC announced<\/a> it would begin using Super LCD (SLCD) displays in its current 3.7-inch AMOLED smartphone offerings later this summer.  This move is an effort to get more smartphones onto the market in light of the ongoing AMOLED shortage.  Mentioned in the press release were two 3.7-inch-screened HTC smartphones: the Desire (which isn\u2019t yet sold by a U.S. carrier) and Nexus One (which seems to be<\/a> on its way out). There was not word one about the Droid Incredible, which is certainly more popular in the U.S. than either of these devices.  I wasn\u2019t the only person who found this omission odd<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, there you have it.  Three unrelated events which together point to the Incredible\u2019s possible demise.  <\/p>\n

Any thoughts?  <\/p>\n

Matthew Nichols<\/a>, Products Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea seemed impossible just a couple of weeks ago.  But recent events have moved it squarely into the maybe column. I\u2019m not saying HTC is on the verge of discontinuing the Incredible, but there\u2019s now enough circumstantial evidence to make it a possibility.  Here\u2019s why: During the weekend of July 10, I was contacted […] Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/computerhunter.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/computerhunter.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/computerhunter.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computerhunter.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computerhunter.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/computerhunter.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11461,"href":"https:\/\/computerhunter.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11459\/revisions\/11461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/computerhunter.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computerhunter.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computerhunter.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}