Believe it or not, we haven’t been just throwing darts at a calendar with all the estimations for when the HTC Thunderbolt will finally be available on Verizon LTE. While some of the sources providing these dates have seemed more reliable than others, so far none have panned out. That may have just changed, as an HTC sales manager let slip March 17 as the phone’s release date, via Twitter.

HTC’s Imran Shahid posted the tweet earlier today, but as is too often the case with these Twitter leaks, the tweet has been since deleted. Shahid appears to be doing damage control, as his tweets have now been made private. Once again, we’re left wondering if this was a legitimate leak that he mistakenly revealed, or if he got some bad information and is now covering his tracks.

Problem is, this doesn’t really jive with the message put forth by Verizon CEO Tony Melone this week, painting the picture of LTE smartphones coming out more towards summer. Further confusing the situation, Engadget reports that one of its tipsters has informed them that Verizon has conditionally approved the Thunderbolt, contingent on HTC getting on board with Verizon’s requests in regards to future firmware updates. Assuming this is true and those negotiations go smoothly, that could mean an early-April release for the Thunderbolt. Perhaps we would be better off with the darts.

Source: Twitter (link now dead), Engadget

Via: BGR