Samsung announced that Italy was the first country where the new high-end Samsung i900 Omnia would be available, starting July 22. This comes shortly after Samsung said the Omnia would also be available in Germany, but only starting the 6th of August.

The good news for Italian mobile users - besides the fact that they'll be the first to buy an Omnia - is that Samsung has decided to offer the handset together with a free Microsoft Xbox 360 Arcade gaming console. The offer is available for all those who pre-order the new Omnia.

I case you're wondering why Samsung chose to offer an Xbox 360 and not a PlayStation or a Wii console, the answer is simple: Omnia runs on Windows Mobile 6.1, hence it is, in a way, part of Microsoft's family of products.

The Italian retail price of Samsung Omnia is of 499 Euros ($790) for the 8GB version. This is far more affordable than the retail price announced for Germany - 649 Euros (about $1,030).

Coming in an elegant case that measures only 112 x 56.9 x 12.5 millimeters and weighs 127 grams, Samsung Omnia is bundled with a set of features that can make any other high-end Pocket PC look at it with envy: quad-band GSM connectivity, HSDPA for data transfer speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps, a 3.2 TFT touchscreen display with 240 x 400 pixels, an intuitive TouchWiz interface, a 5 Megapixel camera with auto focus, image stabilizer, face detection, WDR, flash and video recording, built-in GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Music and Video players, full HTML browser, advanced email capabilities, document viewer and editor (Pocket Office) and 8GB or 16GB of expandable memory.

"Omnia will open a new era in the mobile phone industry by offering everything you wish for in your mobile," said Paolo Quindici, Marketing and Sales Director of the Telecommunications division at Samsung Italy.

After the Italian release of Omnia, Samsung will launch the Pocket PC in lots of other markets so that, until the end of August, the handset will be available in about all the European countries.

No word yet on whether or not Omnia will be offered with a free Xbox 360 console in other markets except Italy, but that would surely be great.