Samsung is putting out a waterproof/sandproof version of the Galaxy S4 later this summer, called the S4 Active. Verizon does sell the S4, and hopefully they'll pick up the Active (see the link I've attached for the specs below). I nosed around at the Kyoceras over at Sprint, but neither the brand nor the carrier have the best of reputations, so I'm not particularly interested in jumping ship on either account just yet. This link is one of several sites with S4 Active specs: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/mobile-stars-latest-smartphones-and-tablets/2013...
Casio had been working on a Gshock phone at one point, and there were specs and pictures like 18 months ago. It was supposed to be quad core and crazy, and looked like something the Batman would carry; http://www.phonearena.com/news/G-Shock-phone-is-ugly-but-tough-enough-not-to-care_id26223. That's the phone we'd all like I think: some kind of a waterproof beast with quad core, plenty of internal memory (don't get me wrong, I like the Commando, but they hosed us on that aspect, and it's not like flash memory is expensive), a decent camera, and no need for a case. And that seems to be about what that Samsung looks like it could be.
Now, the real problem is that with so many of us coming to the end of our contracts and dealing with Commandos which are starting to misbehave, we've got this limbo period where we need phones but don't have options we want. Verizon will lose its entire market share of people who want a ruggedized smartphone if they don't do something soon (you hear that VZW? We're calling you out and telling you that you've mishandled this and stand to lose us as customers), and Casio is going to get run out of the general consumer business end of things. This is extra ridiculous because reports about the C811 go back to like October of last year. We should have had that phone 6 months ago. It's not a matter of entitlement so much as "there is no reason for you to have sat on an upgrade people want." It's like they think we're going to go from high-durability phone to signing a new contract to get some fancy new something that will die if it gets wet. There's no reason in the world to make a not-waterproof phone other than wanting to force people to buy replacements. I doubt the marketshare for replacements is so big that they'd be losing out if they sold fewer of them.
