After seeing press shots, dummy units, and hearing rumored release date after release date, Verizon has finally officially announced the HTC Trophy, the first Windows Phone 7 smartphone for the carrier. The Trophy will launch with online sales starting May 26, for about $150 after rebate and service agreement.

The last of the first-wave WP7 smartphones to arrive in the US, the once-7-Trophy has the familiar 1GHz Snapdragon at its heart, driving a 3.8-inch WVGA display, and features a five-megapixel rear camera and 16GB of internal flash storage. Verizon seems to have been really dragging its feet in getting the Trophy out the door; once Microsoft added CDMA support to Windows Phone 7 earlier this spring, we expected Sprint and Verizon to be all over the chance to start to start selling phones running the mobile operating system. Sprint didn’t dally with the HTC Arrive, but Verizon’s Trophy appeared to hit delay after delay.

Regardless of the carrier’s motives in pushing back the launch so far, the HTC Trophy is now nearly upon us; after online sales start May 26, the smartphone will hit Verizon stores on June 2. We don’t know what the stock situation will end up being like, but there’s the possibility we could see some early retail sales, as with the Droid X². As part of a cross-promotion, if you pick up a Trophy before the middle of July, Verizon will hook you up with a free Xbox 360 game. That’s cool if you own the console already, but wouldn’t a WP7 game package be a little more appropriate?

Source: Verizon