HTC Lexikon (HTC Merge) Release Date Could Be Nov. 11

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It’s being reported that the HTC Merge/HTC Lexikon/HTC Desire Z is headed to Verizon next month. The phone, which appears to be Verizon’s variant of the HTC Desire Z, or the phone known as the T-Mobile G2, is very similar to those phones, save for its recoloring in Verizon/Droid colors and a slightly different keyboard.

Despite it carrying the colors of the Droid marketing campaign, some have suggested it won’t be given the “Droid” branding. What this means for customers, is that the phone may ship with Bing as the default search engine, instead of Google. We’ve been told that the Verizon-LucasFilm-Google-Droid deal involves Google being the standard search engine on any phone branded “Droid”.

The tip regarding the November 11th release date, comes from droid-life.com and their writer Kellex, who cites internal sources. T-Mobile is obviously leading the HTC Desire Z launch in the United States with their T-Mobile G2. The November 11th release date would put the HTC Merge/HTC Lexikon about a month behind that phone becoming available – and knowing the complex world of US carriers and exclusivity contracts for phones, we now believe that T-Mobile’s exclusivity period on the HTC Desire Z will last one month, hence the quick turn around before the release of the next phone on Verizon.

Does this phone interest anybody? Tell us what you think the comments section.