This thread title is misleading, I thought it pointed to a delay, or worse a reclarification of the terms of keeping Unlimited Data. There's no delay as long as these phones ship by July 9th. It sucks to keep having to wait, but the July 9th date was pretty clear from the beginning. I too would like to be pleasantly surprised by Verizon, but I'm certainly not expecting it.
All the bloatware talk is a little overblown. Yes, this phone will likely have bloatware, like every other VZW Android phone. But why is it any worse than others? Just like before, most of us who care will root the phone anyway, and can freeze any carrier added software, as well as certain manufacturer added applications, that we know we don't want and will never use.
For those acting like all bloatware is the devil, it all depends on definition. Most of us have used some form of bloatware at some time or another. I use the My Verizon widget to manage my account and keep up with usage, not to mention its fun to watch the data counter add up if you have Unlimited. I even grab the one for the Nexus when I'm running an AOSP ROM. How many of you used the Netflix app that came on your phone, instead of freezing it and re-downloading it from the Market? For those of us that have had 4G LTE phones for awhile, you can't tell me you never used NFL Mobile last season when you could watch every game for free. Hell, I even took advantage of the promotion last year to get Madden '12 for free through the VZ Apps store, though I haven't bothered to figure out how to get it working again on my Razr. If nothing else, I'm sure many of us used Backup Assistant the first time we switched to an Android phone. Granted, its useless bloatware once all your contacts get synched with Google, but we were all there once and its useful for first-time Android users.
I'm not saying I agree with the process of adding bloatware, I think its ridiculous. All carrier apps, as well as manufacturer apps that are not necessary to the system's operation, but add extra features or content above that of stock Android, should all be accessible through their own App Stores on the phone. Or at least allow us to uninstall them without being root. But still, its no worse than any other Android phone (save the Nexus), and as far as we know VZW hasn't made the process of disabling or removing them any more difficult than its always been. So a Verizon employee told you the phones wouldn't be shipping until the date that Verizon said the phones would ship by, and she also said that Verizon was adding some of their own apps. Neither of those are a big deal, and to be honest that goes along EXACTLY with what most of us should have expected.
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