Samsung today announced that it will be delivering a variant of its Samsung Focus Flash to customers in Europe starting late in October. Dubbed the Samsung Omnia W, this handset will run Windows Phone 7.5, Microsoft's soon-to-be-release revision to its mobile OS software.
"We are excited about the potential for Windows Phone and the possibilities it opens for Samsung customers," says Samsung president JK Shin. "Mobile consumers increasingly expect to be socially networked through their phones anytime, anywhere, and instantly. They are looking for high-performance devices that are easy and intuitive to use, look great, and enable them to create and share rich multimedia content with ease. The Samsung Omnia W delivers on every count."
The Omnia W features a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED screen running at 800 x 480, a 1.4 GHz processor, 8 GB of storage, a 5 megapixel camera, and integrated 14.4Mbps HSPA connectivity. It will be sold first in Italy and then will be launched globally to Europe, CIS, Latin America, Africa, South East and South West Asia, Samsung says.
In addition to the normal Windows Phone 7.5 software, the Omnia W will also include some Samsung-specific apps, such as Samsung AllShare, for DLNA-based media streaming; Video Call, for 3G video conversations; Mini Diary, for creating personalized digital journals on the go; an upgraded version of Samsung eBook; the Now 2.0 news app; and RSS Time, for reading RSS feeds for newspapers, magazines and blogs.
The Omnia W follows previous Windows Phone 7.5 handset announcements such as the HTC TITAN and HTC Radar, and the Samsung Focus S and Samsung Focus Flash. Nokia is expected to announce one or more Windows Phone 7.5 handsets at its Nokia World conference next month as well. And Liveside is reporting that the China-based ZTE Tania has also been officially announced.