The HTC Thunderbolt was recently launched by Verizon Wireless in the US. It is supposedly a great phone, running Android 2.2, a 4.3 inch capacitive touchscreen, 8 MP Autofocus camera, 1 Ghz processor - but it is nothing more than a re-styled HTC Desire HD with the LTE (a method of 4G connectivity) option added. The AndroidOS blog reported last week that Letsbuy.com has it for pre-order. In our opinion, there is a 0.1 % chance that this launches officially in India. Our reasoning is below.

• The original HTC Desire HD is already being sold in India, so HTC has no reason to bring this over here.
• If you say “4G” is a good reason, not a single carrier in India has launched 4G LTE yet.
• It’s a CDMA-based device. Which almost certainly means that it cannot launch without support from any one of the CDMA providers in India – Reliance, Tata Indicom, MTS, etc.
• Finally, all such devices are specifically made in conjunction with the carrier (in this case, Verizon Wireless, USA) and we don’t see any need/reason for VZW to want to sell this phone here

This isn’t the first instance of us seeing a US-only device being “sold” in India. Nearly 8-10 months ago, the Univercell website had a listing for the “Evo MAX 4G”. Originally, the Evo 4G was sold by Sprint in the United States. It too was a CDMA-based variant of the HTC Desire HD, with Wi-Max connectivity for 4G. Take it from us – you are not going to get these CDMA-based, carrier-specific high-end variants of the HTC Desire HD in India. Still want something like it? Try the HTC Desire HD. Or the recently launched HTC Incredible S.