As all potential owners of the much sought after HTC Thunderbolt know, Verizon still hasn’t got round to officially announcing when the Android 2.2 Froyo HTC Thunderbolt will become available for purchase, but do they really need to at the moment?

There have been numerous rumours over the release of the HTC Thunderbolt for quite some time and the hype seems to be running out of control. The thing is, as I see it, Verizon doesn’t actually need to release the HTC Thunderbolt just yet, and here’s why…

Recently Verizon has gained the Verizon iPhone and obviously the Big Red wants to get as many customers to pick up the CDMA iPhone, then there’s the release of the Apple iPad 2 on Verizon, another device Verizon will want to make sure does well in sales along with other great devices.

Then of course there’s the rumour that the white iPhone 4 will make an appearance next month as reported (here), Verizon is obviously going to want the white version of the iPhone 4 to sell well if they get it.

Thus if the Big Red were to release the HTC Thunderbolt right now it is possible customers would pick up that device rather than the others and affect those sales. Now of course one can’t blame Verizon, as they have never actually given a release date for the Android smartphone.

However, is Verizon doing the right thing by not officially announcing a release date for the HTC Thunderbolt when so many customers are asking for it? Well the game is all about publicity and getting people interested in a product one way or another and look at the interest in the Thunderbolt because it hasn’t been released yet the net is rife with articles.

According to my colleague Mark, the HTC Thunderbolt is available for pre-order at Wirefly with apparently a release for the 17th of March. Will it happen? It’s hard to say, as Verizon still hasn’t given their official stamp to the device, something that usually happens before the device actually becoming available.

All in all, no doubt Verizon will release the HTC Thunderbolt at some point, whether that point will be on Thursday or later remains to be seen. But what do the potential Thunderbolt customers think, is Verizon doing the right thing by holding off officially releasing the HTC Thunderbolt?

Whatever the reason for not releasing the Thunderbolt yet I’m sure Verizon have their reasons, be it to boost other device sales or problems with the smartphone; but hopefully sooner rather than later the HTC Thunderbolt will finally come out to play.

UPDATE: It is now OFFICIAL read here.