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Beginning June 29, the HTC Ozone will be available on the Verizon Wireless network.
The smartphone will initially be sold on the Verizon Website for $49.99 after a $70 mail-in rebate and with a new two-year contract. Come July 13, the Ozone will additionally be for sale in Verizon retail stores.
The Ozone is similar to the the HTC Dash, and even looks somewhat related to the BlackBerry Tour, with rounded edges and a four-row QWERTY keypad below its non-touch-screen.
It runs the Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard operating system and offers global roaming, with EvDO (Evolution Data Optimized) Rev. A for 3G in the United States and quad-band GSM/EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution) abroad.
Wi-Fi connectivity is supported, there’s Stereo Bluetooth and for $9.99 a month, VZ Navigator, a turn-by-turn directions GPS application, is available.
A 2.0-megapixel camera with auto-focus and video is also included, along with a MicroSD memory slot for up to 16GB of additional memory and a 1500mAh battery for a good deal of operating time.
The Ozone also has Mobile IM, a one-touch messaging key for reaching out to the contacts you contact most, as well as Visual Voicemail, for an additional $2.99 a month. With the Mobile Email application, users can access e-mail from popular services such as AOL and Yahoo, as well as access Windows Live Seamless Microsoft Exchange, which syncs with Microsoft Office Mobile.
The Ozone is an inexpensive smartphone option, during a summer that has so far seen the more pricey Palm Pre, Apple iPhone 3G S and unlocked Nokia N97. The BlackBerry Tour and T-Mobile MyTouch-also from HTC-will also be arriving as the summer heats up.