Well finally HTC & Verizon Wireless have put a lot of people out of their misery and officially announced the release date for the HTC Thunderbolt smartphone, the release dated is 17 March 2011.

The price for the HTC Thunderbolt is reported to start at $249.99, see my colleague Mark’s post earlier today on the release date and price of the phone.

If you are still interested in the HTC Thunderbolt after all the calamity surrounding the release date, then you may also be interested in obtaining some of the accessories for the phone. Well, you need not wait for a release date for some of these, as a couple of items are already on sale at Best Buy stores. According to the guys at androidcommunity.com you will see a couple of cases for the HTC Thunderbolt displayed on the racks, the RocketFish mobile case and the QUICK CLIP holster – both in black.

It appears that there is no problem in obtaining some of the accessories now, even though the phone is not released until tomorrow.

It has also been revealed by those at gizmocrunch.com that there has been a leak regarding further accessories available for the HTC Thunderbolt, these include a multimedia dock, an extended battery pack and wireless charging battery cover. These accessories are reported to range between $40 and $60, but we are unable to confirm when they will be available in stores.

I would also like to add for all those that have pre-ordered the HTC Thunderbolt or for anyone that may still be considering purchasing one, that of interest may be my colleague James’ post regarding the ‘user manual now being available online’.