US Carrier pickup?

[tangobravozab]

Anyone know if a US carrier is going to pick up the Ativ S? I'm holding out for this phone over the 920, 820, and 8X. From what I've read, the Verizon exclusive Odyssey is not the Ativ S (according to Steve Balmer).

 

[tangobravozab]

Potential answer

I've been thinking about this issue over the last day and I think I have a partial answer to my question. Although I don't know which US carrier (if any, see below) will pick up the ATIV S, the phone is available for pre-sale in most European countries, Canada, and Australia, from what I've read online. This pre-sale version of the phone does not have 4G LTE (from what I've read again, though I don't know if all these countries will or won't have it). It makes sense to release a US version with 4G LTE because it is a major marketing point. It also makes sense that the delay in announcements on the ATIV S is caused by the development of a 4G LTE version for the American market.

Since Verizon is getting the Odyssey, which has been unofficially touted as an ATIV S lite (though not the actual ATIV S according to the Microsoft CEO), it makes sense that they wouldn't get the ATIV S. T-Mobile probably does not have the clout to get what is arguably the premier Windows Phone 8 device. AT&T tends to get exclusive rights to a premier device, at least initially, so if I was a betting man (which I'm not), I would say AT&T will get this phone, probably sometime late this year or early next year depending on where Samsung is with the 4G LTE development version (assuming my theory is correct!). It doesn't make sense to me that Samsung would create a phone of this caliber (the WP8 equivalent of their premier device, the Galaxy S III) and not release in the American market.