Ready for a nice rumor to wrap up your Monday evening? The image you see above was allegedly given to a Best Buy employee from a Verizon rep and shows which existing Big Red handsets may be replaced by upcoming devices. For example, the document shows the Samsung Stratosphere replacing the Fascinate, the BlackBerry Curve 9370 replacing the Curve 3G, and the Samsung Illusion taking the place of the LG Vortex and Ally. The two most interesting tidbits about this doc, though, revolve around the devices in the middle and at the bottom of the list.
First up is the Thunderbolt 2 replacing the original TBolt. According to a leaked Verizon roadmap from last month, the HTC Vigor will be replacing the ThunderBolt on store shelves. So both of these leaks are legit — which, to be honest, could be a stretch — then it seems that Verizon could be planning to brand the Vigor as the ThunderBolt 2. As Droid-Life points out, such a move could make sense considering that the model numbers of the two devices are so close (TBolt is the ADR6400, Vigor is ADR6425).
Next is the "Sam Prime" at the bottom of the doc. Shown as replacing the DROID Charge, this "Sam Prime" is likely the Nexus Prime/DROID Prime/Someotherrandomname Prime. Once again, the model numbers of these two phones could be evidence of one replacing the other, as the Prime is said to carry the model number SGCH-i515 and the Charge is SCH-i510.
Normally we advise you to take rumors with a grain or two of salt, and tonight is no different. In fact, go ahead and do that now. I'll wait. Now that that's out of the way, it's worth mentioning that it wouldn't be completely strange to see Verizon already preparing to replace the ThunderBolt and DROID Charge. The Revolution is one of Big Red's more recent 4G LTE handsets, but that didn't stop LG or Verizon from pushing what is likely the Rev's successor through the FCC ahead of its rumored October launch date. Of course, none of this changes the fact that this doc could be easily faked, so just remember to not take it as gospel. What do you all think? Will Verizon slap the Vigor with the name ThunderBolt 2 and replace the Charge with the Prime? Or are you sitting in front of your computer screen shouting "Fake!"?