...Logically: Samsung/Google has been promoting. They have ads all over. They just held a European announcement that it was coming out the 17th there. If it was coming out here on the 17th, wouldn't they go as big as they could, have a worldwide announcement that it was coming out "everywhere" on the 17th?
Things are never that simple, cut & dry w/ Verizon. There are 2 versions of the SGN. Samsung/Google are handling the GT-I9250 world launch of the dual gsm/cdma model. Verizon is leading the launch of their own SGN variant, the (exclusive) SCH-I515 model. It's a logical thought about ads & promos. but that way of marketing has never been the modus operandi for Verizon & their phone releases. They've done things at their own pace, choosing & control. As an example of this. Shortly after the SGN unpacking event. Samsung was inundated w/ questions about release info. on their Twitter account because carriers weren't mentioned, only a Nov. release was hinted. The following day, an employee of Samsung tweeted, on Samsungs official account, in response to the inquiries, that Verizon was the the only one w/ a deal, as far as carriers at that point, and it would release to others later. Verizon wanted to let that cat outta the bag themselves, when they felt ready. This was the second time Samsung released info. about the SGN on Verizon. When media broke the story. They issued the first, w/ permission, that Verizon opted out of the SGS II, in favor of an exclusive Samsung release down the line, shortly before the unpacking event for the U.S. carriers & their new variants of the SGS II. When they found out it happened again, w/out permission, they asked them retract that tweet. Samsung then retracted & retweeted that they were misinformed and no carrier was confirmed. Since Verizon was already named previously & was mum about the whole thing all along. When tech. sites heard that. They panicked thinking Verizon must've blown their "exclusive" somehow, which is understandable considering Verizon backed out of the original Nexus device, in favor of launching the Droid lineup, at the last minute. That retweet backfired worse on Verizon because people got pissed off thinking reports were true. Which was the only reason Verizon confirmed, as damage control, they still had a deal in place & would launch "later this year".
. ....Anyone who thinks Verizon isn't screwing this up, ask yourselves this. "Why is Slovakia getting this phone before me?"
Nothing new here, the U.S. is always at the end of the line for phone releases. Much like Verizons SGN variant, the T-bolt was an "exclusive" built as a carrier specific release, to work on their LTE network. Verizons the most stringent of the stateside carriers when it comes to testing new devices. All of Verizons 4g offerings, have a far lengthier testing period than the phones distributed to GSM carriers. You can usually expect test periods in the US to be double the time it spent in testing overseas. It also of note, that their are other hurdles that phones have to be subjected to in the US, that aren't required overseas. If you look back at history, you'll discover that there aren't many phones that don't ship out to foreign markets before they land stateside. However, none of that means we won't see a US release, or pre-order period start, on or before Nov. 17. I don't think Verizon would've issued any statement about their release if large scale testing was still underway, though.