Verizon Wireless sinks Samsung Omnia to $99 on contract

by Darren Murph posted Feb 17th 2009 at 7:12PM

Samsung's Omnia stayed at its original $249.99 for an amazing six days on Verizon Wireless before dropping to $199.99. Two months later, it's down to $99.99 when purchased on a two year contract. Why the drop, you ask? Oh, we don't know -- probably because it looks totally antiquated when sized up against the recently unveiled OmniaHD. Just call it a hunch.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

Tags: omnia, price, price drop, PriceDrop, pricing, samsung, verizon, verizon wireless, VerizonWireless

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

jouten @ Feb 17th 2009 7:24PM

It makes me grimace when I buy a new phone not knowing for sure if the price will tank or not. When it does, I hate it. =(

Highly Ranked

damiaking @ Feb 17th 2009 7:26PM

maybe a cdma omnia hd is coming who knows?

Neutral

Al @ Feb 17th 2009 7:39PM

Or the T*omnia at best.

Anyone know if a Canadian CDMA carrier has this phone or not?

Neutral

Epsilon-Not @ Feb 17th 2009 7:46PM

Wasn't the T*Omnia an Anycall phone? The number one way to tell that a Samsung phone will never come to the US is to look for the Anycall logo...

I wouldn't mind seeing the T*Omnia on VZW, mind you... though obviously the HD would be even better, and really the current Omnia isn't terrible.

Neutral

Chas @ Feb 17th 2009 7:50PM

WTF is up with Verizon? If they are not launching Win Mobile phones as they are released by the manufactures (Treo 800w, Treo Pro, Touch Diamond,) they are releasing ones that are crippled (Touch Pro) or obsolete (Omina). What a joke of a wireless carrier!

Neutral

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Feb 17th 2009 8:37PM

yea i've been waiting forever for the 800w or Treo Pro but VZW doesn't seem to care about either. i'm going to Sprint to get a Pre this summer now anyway though cause i can't take VZW sucky line up anymore (i've been with VZW for like 8 years now, back when color screens where a feature).

Neutral

Sofunnytom @ Feb 17th 2009 8:59PM

In latin, Omnia means "everything"; Omina means "omens" (good or bad).

Neutral

Rogue_Genius @ Feb 17th 2009 10:08PM

@ Curt

Wait, you're on VZW waiting for those two phones? I don't even think the 800W is worth waiting for. If you simply HAVE to get the palm-flavored winmo 6.1 and form factor, be my guest. But you can probably do better. If anything, I'd say the Treo Pro would be the best bet between the two. And this is all coming from a 5 year vzw customer who is currently rocking a 700W. But I'll be leaving for blue-er pastures within the next week...:)

Highest Ranked

elgee02 @ Feb 18th 2009 11:52AM

How the bloody hell is a 5 megapixel Windows Mobile 6.1 EVDO Ref A with WiFi phone "obsolete"?

Highest Ranked

Chris Canty @ Feb 17th 2009 9:13PM

you guys are so funny complaining about verizon. THEY LOWERED THE FREAKIN PRICE and your still whining. Get over, and quit using message boards to sound off about how youve been a customer for umpteen years and you're gonna leave. You know what, go ahead and leave, verizon will be fine without you.

Verizon has a poor relationship with palm, and apparently so does everyone else, because no other carrier has officially released any of the latest treo devices except for the centro.

Stop whining and speak with your wallet, thats the only way companies listen.

Neutral

GenoMalice @ Feb 17th 2009 10:20PM

The Treo Pro is available here in Canada... Bell has it!

Neutral

Michael @ Feb 17th 2009 10:29PM

Crap. I just bought the damn thing on Friday. The earlier engadgetmobile post left me with the impression that the price wouldn't be reduced until next month. Could've used the extra $100. But I got greedy and jumped the gun.

Anyone think I have a chance of getting some form of credit by complaining? It seems ridiculously unfair to drop the price without giving the consumer a warning of impending price drop (yes I WAS aware, but the average customer likely had no clue).

Neutral

... @ Feb 17th 2009 10:50PM

Verizon will price match any of their own prices within 30 days. Just go in and ask for a refund!

Neutral

Bob K @ Feb 18th 2009 1:42AM

Go to the store and get an adjustment for the difference, I did.
You have 30 days return policy if they don't like it

Neutral

... @ Feb 17th 2009 10:49PM

If you guys bothered to look at all of Verizon's phone prices, you would realize that ALL Samsung phones are on sale right now. They just ended their LG promo and moved to a 50% off all Samsung phones promo that will probably go for 45 days.

Neutral

alltouchdiamondcom @ Feb 17th 2009 10:39PM

Michael, you have 30 days of trial with verizon, so you can return it and get one for $99.
For tricks on the omnia http://www.samsung-omnia.org/samsung-omnia-tricks-and-tips/

Neutral

Michael @ Feb 17th 2009 11:10PM

Hey great! Thanks to you, and to "..." as well. Will head over tomorrow and get some money back. :) It's a great phone for the price. Wish Verizon was planning on getting the Pre though. Shrug.

Neutral

Ryan Beesley @ Feb 18th 2009 1:10PM

I had a Treo 700w for 3+ years. I picked up a G1 back in Nov, returned it the day before my 15 day "trial" period ended (seriously, what's up with that T-Mobile?), picked up the Omnia during the holidays, returning it a couple days before it's "trial" period ended, and now I've swung back and picked up an Android Developer Phone 1 (ADP1), the G1 Dev phone.

The 700w was really starting to show it's age, but I was finding it difficult to find a suitable replacement. Like SoCoolCurt, I thought I might be holding out for an 800w. I've been a WinMo user since my Samsung i600 running Smartphone 2002, but with Android device(s) coming to market, I felt the need to examine other options. The G1 met most of my expectations, but I didn't think the keyboard held up to the standard set by the 700w. The Omnia was a step back in resolution in some ways, and certainly a step back in some functionality. I think Samsung did a good job trying to release a touch device, but as has been pointed out, it was obsolete the minute it hit the market. The camera was the best thing it had going for it.

Back on the ADP1, it doesn't meet all my needs, but I can't help but love the openness of the phone. I'm running the latest JF varient ROM, giving me the RC33 revision with tweaked bits such as Multitouch and orientation sensing. I could always sit down and write an application for WinMo (I have before), but the ADP1 really embodies that and makes you want to write apps. Because I have the Dev phone, I expect that I will move to a different Android device when it matures a little more. I will continue to keep the ADP1 as a development platform.

Neutral

Michael @ Feb 18th 2009 6:46PM

update: called customer service today and was told that they'd have no problem crediting my account for the 100 dollar difference. With my NE2 the phone's only costing 50. Not too shabby. Thanks for your help guys.

Neutral

ashabanapal @ Feb 22nd 2009 5:08PM

I'm not sure what I did differently, Michael, but I ordered an Omnia at vzw.com yesterday. After NE2, sale price, and online discount, I got it for $0.00. Maybe you can have them run the numbers again?

Also, thanks for the link alltouch, it's just what I was looking for.

Neutral

Michael @ Feb 22nd 2009 8:27PM

@ashabanapal
I think that's probably because I'm on the lower NE2 tier and you're on the higher. Plans with a monthly rate of $79.99 or more get a higher NE2 discount than the plans from $34.99 to $79.98... being $100 and $50 respectively (which was recently changed to $50 and $30 for any enrollments after 02/15/2009, cause Verizon sucks).