Samsung Galaxy S III pre-orders for Verizon begin June 6th

Soon after the Samsung Galaxy S III was announced for five US carriers, we've gotten our first information about ordering the phone. Verizon has announced that the Galaxy S III will be arriving at its stores in "the coming weeks," and it's open to pre-orders starting at 7am EDT on Wednesday, June 6th. As Samsung promised, it will indeed start at $199.99 for the 16GB version, with the 32GB one available for $249.99. Both those prices require the standard two-year agreement, and customers will need to subscribe to an LTE data package, the cheapest of which provides 2GB of monthly data for $30. Beyond having a different antenna, there aren't substantial differences between this and the Galaxy S III phones that will be coming to AT&T, T-Mobile, and others, so hopefully this announcement means that we'll be seeing a similar release date for everyone else.

Update: There was some concern among Verizon customers who have been clinging to their unlimited data plans that they'd have to give them up when upgrading to the Galaxy S III — after all, Verizon's language notes that customers will need to subscribe to an LTE data package starting at $30 for 2GB of data. However, Verizon has confirmed to Droid Life that current customers with unlimited data plans will get to keep them when buying the Galaxy S III. That isn't a huge surprise — Verizon had previously said that it customers could keep unlimited data when upgrading until the carrier launches shared data plans. Still, it's a comforting reassurance for those clinging to their precious unlimited plans.

Nathan Ingraham contributed to this report.