Windows Phone Samsung Omnia M headed for UK, without operators' backing

The Samsung Omnia M is set to go on sale in the UK on Wednesday — but it could struggle to gain a foothold in the market as none of the country's major operators have yet signed up to carry the device.

The handset, which was first announced in May, runs on the Mango (7.5) release of the Windows Phone operating system, and comes with a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and a 1GHz processor.

The Omnia M also sports a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera with Flash and auto-focus, and a front-facing VGA resolution camera for video calling. 

The device carries very similar features to the Samsung Omnia 7, released back in 2010, meaning that the handset will likely struggle to compete against better-specced and cheaper rivals.

Phones4U will be the only retailer to offer the handset for the first two months after release, where it will be priced from free on contracts of £20.50 (depending on network) and is also available at around £290 on pay-as-you-go.

However, none of the major UK operators -- Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Three and O2 -- could confirm to ZDNet that it would be offering the device following the end of the exclusivity period.

"At the moment, we have no plans to stock this model," an O2 spokesman told ZDNet. "Although we aren't selling the Samsung Omnia M, we're continuing to work with Samsung on future products."

With the likely release of Windows Phone 8 to manufacturers in November it's hard to imagine why two months from now retailers, networks or customers would opt for a handset with specs from 2010 and a price tag that places it just under £300.