Nice phone. Ridiculous price.
Posted in This Just In... on August 12th, 2009 by gkrakow
All things being equal, I think HTC’s new Touch Pro 2 is a good smartphone. What is not exactly equal is the price that T-Mobile is asking for it – $349.99.
From this point on it doesn’t matter what I have to say about the phone.
I can tell you that it runs on Windows Mobile (the older version 6.1), has a 3.2 megapixel camera (video/stills), a tilting touchscreen, microSD memory card expansion slot, stereo Bluetooth and operates on T-Mobile’s speedy 3G data network.
But it sells for $349.99.
I could also tell you that the is no Wi-Fi and that the Touch Pro 2 is a physically large and heavy handset (2.4 by 4.6 by 0.7 inches, 6.6 ounces) but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The extra heft allows for one of the roomiest and comfortable slide-out QWERTY keyboards on a modern-day handset. It also allows for a large, rechargeable battery which is said to offer as much as 8.5 hours of talk and 20 days of standby power.
But, it sells for $349.99.
In my tests I found the phone to feel large and heavy in my hand, but typing on the keyboard was a breeze and it was able to receive 3G signals in places where other T-Mobile phone could only dream about.
None of that matters. What does matter is how the phone has been priced. $349.99 (with a two-year service agreement). It is a death sentence for this or any other over-priced modern-day cell phone.
With loads of smaller, feature-laden smartphones to choose from – from Apple, Palm, BlackBerry and even HTC (Android-based models) – and with many more on the way why would anyone spend that much money for this phone? Or any other phone?
The real question here is why T-Mobile priced it so high. I can guess that the they approved the phone design months ago as they were just beginning to build-out their 3G network. At that time, the phone seemed like a good idea. But now, with the competition heating up, there are too many other smartphones they need to subsidize. So, the bottom line is that the Touch Pro suffers.
Whatever the reason, I don’t see how they can market such an expensive model.
I hope this is not the beginning of a trend for cellular providers to decide for us which phone designs will be heavily subsidized and which ones will be barely discounted. Pricing some good smartphones out of the reach of most customers doesn’t seem like a smart business practice.