Just hours after Google shocked all of us by partially unveiling the design of the Pixel 4 months ahead of schedule, confirming many of the leaks that had sprung up in recent weeks in the process, a release date for the phone might have emerged. On Thursday morning, VentureBeat’s Evan Blass shared a screenshot of what seems to be a leaked Verizon marketing calendar containing the release dates of multiple “tier 1” mobile devices.
In addition to featuring the May launch of the Pixel 3a, the calendar also suggests that the Galaxy Note 10 will launch in August, the iPhone 11 will debut in late September, and the Pixel 4 will arrive in October. All of these dates line up with our expectations pretty much to a tee, but more proof never hurts.
Although nothing on the calendar is especially surprising, it drives home just how out of the ordinary Google’s tweet was on Wednesday, revealing the final design of the Pixel 4 four months ahead of launch. This is unexplored territory for Google (and for most other major smartphone manufacturers), but as leaks become increasingly commonplace, some of these phone makers are going to try to find ways to control the narrative.
We won’t try to glean too much from this calendar, as these dates could certainly change depending on a variety of factors, but it’s at least worth noting that there is only one iPhone launch listed. You might remember that the iPhone XR ended up launching weeks after the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, but this might (and we want to emphasize that “might”) be a sign that all three iPhone models will launch simultaneously in 2019.
Nevertheless, if all the iPhone leaks are to be believed, the designs of the iPhone 11 and Pixel 4 look to be incredibly similar. It will be interesting to see if Google’s decision to get out in front of the leaks (as best it could) will pay off when it comes to the narratives that will inevitably arise as the year goes on.
