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Samsung Omnia, Motorola Hint on tap

November 25 2008 - 1:56 pm ET | Phil Carson | RCR Wireless News

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The new Samsung Omnia touchscreen smartphone lands at Verizon Wireless for $250, after a $70 mail-in rebate, with a two-year service contract.

Carriers are putting the finishing touches on their portfolios this week as the traditionally hottest shopping day of the year draws close. That’s Black Friday, this Friday.

The new Samsung Omnia touchscreen smartphone will land at Verizon Wireless on Wednesday at $250, after a $70 mail-in rebate, with a two-year service contract.

The Omnia runs Windows Mobile 6.1, offers a virtual QWERTY keypad and customizable user interface. The device includes the Opera 9.5 mobile browser, a 5-megapixel camera, messaging options, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and access to Verizon’s data services.

Verizon Wireless also has added the $350 HTC Touch Pro device to its arsenal (it launched earlier this month at Sprint Nextel Corp. for $300) at a price point at the very high-end of most carrier-based portfolios.

Not to be outdone, AT&T Mobility has discounted two messaging devices to spark consumer interest. The Samsung Propel and Pantech Matrix, typically $80 apiece, can both be had in a two-for-one deal.

Motorola Inc. announced the launch of its Hint device, a “social messaging slider” with a QWERTY keyboard, which will go through Alltel Communications L.L.C. for $100 after a mail-in rebate, starting Nov. 28.

Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless’ BlackBerry Storm is so popular at $200 — or supplies so limited — that the carrier’s Web site announced “limited availability” for the device, promising customers that new online orders will ship by Dec. 8. Stores on the East Coast are also sold out of the device, according to news reports.

Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.

The figures will put the spotlight on hunger when Congress begins deliberations on a new economic stimulus package, said legislators and anti-hunger advocates, predicting that any stimulus bill will include a boost in food stamp benefits. Advocates are also optimistic that President-elect Barack Obama, who made campaign promises to end childhood hunger and whose mother once briefly received food stamps, will make the issue a priority next year.

"We soon will have the most food stamps recipients in the history of our country," said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a D.C.-based anti-hunger policy organization. "If the economic forecasts come true, we're likely to see the most hunger that we've seen since the 1981 recession and maybe since the 1960s, when these programs were established."

The Agriculture Department is set to release the new numbers as early as this week. Agency officials declined to confirm the figures but outlined them in a briefing last month for advocates and administrators of state food stamp programs. Breaking the symbolically important 30 million mark comes on the heels of government data showing that 11.9 million people went hungry in the United States at some point last year. That included nearly 700,000 children, up more than 50 percent from the year before.