I'm sure that you have it right, that VZW designs/specifies the details in the complete phone and Samsung is just a manufacturing facility.
I know carriers like VZW make design demands, but if it was as you describe, the same phone would not be used across carriers. If it's as you describe, as much as I hate apple, perhaps we should just embrace it and and get a phone that works as intended. Yea the "Charge" model is only offered by VZW, and I suspect there is some exclusivity deal that releasing their own software would cause a ruckus.
I guess VZW also wrote the specifications for Android and Google is just the coding house as well, darn. Guess all the phones are actually running different OS's and not the same one.
I only stayed with VZW because of coverage requirements, but this damn phone isn't working any better than an Iphone is those marginal areas. My old BB was a great reception phone, just getting so old there weren't any software updates. Wait those updates were from BB, I thought VZW designed the phone, why didn't I get updates from VZW rather than BB?
At this point I'm getting feed up with the VZW software and it's continuous updates that change/break functions. I should have just bought a very good brick phone with plenty of signal strength and a table of my own choosing rather than a SERVICE PROVIDER's dictate and used the two separately. If only the SERVICE PROVIDER would not GOUGE me on such a contract coverage plan.
Enjoy,
Will