If you're looking to sign a new two-year contract with Verizon, and you have in your possession one American penny, you can get a pretty sweet smartphone from Amazon, thanks to a big new sale.
Amazon Wireless is offering over thirty Verizon phones, including Androids, Mangos and BlackBerry handsets, for one cent, from now through October 17; you'll have to sign a new two-year contract with Verizon, but once you do, a new smartphone (or flip phone!) is yours for almost free.
Among the well-reviewed Verizon phones on sale for a single penny are the Motorola DROID Bionic 4G, the HTC DROID Incredible 2 and the Samsung DROID Charge 4G. Non-Android devices include the HTC Trophy 4G (powered by Windows Phone Mango) and the new BlackBerry Bold.
Among the well-reviewed Verizon phones that are NOT on sale for a penny are any generation of iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S.
The sale does come with some bad news for certain Verizon customers: If you were grandfathered in to the no-longer-existent unlimited data plan, you will have to give up that all-you-can-eat option in order take advantage of the deal. Tech site DVICE confirmed with Amazon spokespeople that the deal only works with "new activations," which means that your unlimited data would disappear once you signed the contract. If you never had unlimited data, however, or if you're going after one of the flip phones available, this won't mean much to you.
The Amazon sale on Verizon phones is scheduled to take some of the spotlight away from the iPhone 4S, which is being released on October 14 to record pre-sale orders and which is reportedly sold out at Sprint, Verizon and AT&T in the United States. This fire sale on Android phones also comes soon before the unveiling of the Samsung Nexus Prime, the newest flagship Android phone from Google.
The Amazon penny sale on Verizon phones ends at 11:59 PM PDT on October 17 (that's 3 AM EST on October 18, East coasters). You can browse through the 31 phones on sale and maybe make a purchase here.