Is Verizon’s HTC Merge Finally Here?

The HTC Merge has been quite a tease with rumors of surfacing in September 2010 and a rumored launch date too by Verizon. That makes it about 9 months since the rumors and only now has it decided to finally emerge (sorry could not resist the pun).

However there was no fanfare when it showed up which is not surprising considering this is technology is almost a year old, but if you have had your sights on the HTC Merge and refuse to consider any other device then more bad news as Verizon will not be selling the phone themselves. According to their website the HTC Merge is only available from third-party distributors which means large retailers such as Best Buy will be your best bet at getting your hands on the device.

Could it be that since this phone contains some rather old technology that Verizon would rather save their money and not stock up on the device? Can’t really blame them for that considering the slew of brand new devices that they now stock that hold much better specifications compared to the HTC Merge which features 800MHz Qualcomm MSM 7630 processor, 512 MB of RAM, Android 2.2 Froyo (seriously?), 2 GB of built in memory, and a 5 MP camera with 720p video recording and not forgetting the slide out keyboard which was one of its selling points.