T-Mobile hits the sauce, demands $350 for HTC Touch Pro2
By Darren Murph 
posted August 12th 2009 2:14AM
posted August 12th 2009 2:14AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted August 12th 2009 2:14AM
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Apple has lowered the bar on pricing, because they can afford to do that. I think in the long run that Apple's plan is going to hurt the market as a whole. When people expect phones to cost $199 or $99 or even be handed to them freely they won't be ready for the real cost. In the current US administration, free phones aren't long for this world.
Does anyone remember when MSN (and other ISPs) would give you $400 to spend at Best Buy for agreeing to a 3-year dial-up contract?
Those days are gone, and soon will be "free phone*** (on contract)" days.
And as it should be. Buy your phone and your service as you see fit. I'm know this analogy has been made before, but...
Get a car for next to nothing, agree to buy XXX amount of gas each month from a single source. Go somewhere without your branded station, or use more gas than you expected... pay 10x more for your gas.
Where I live most phones are free on contract, and the contracts tend to be shorter and lower priced than yours, and our phone market is doing just fine.
I got a nice Samsung Highlight normally priced at $129+ for free with my contract. I live in the Houston area btw.
Yeah, it would be terrible to have a system similar to that of Europe:
Free high-end phones
The ability to buy unlocked
Minimal, less costly contract periods
The newest phones immediately available
The real problem is that mobile device makers can only make money in the US when they partner with or provide exclusivity for a mobile carrier. This sucks because they inevitably have to make it proprietary (branding,apps, MyFav, whatever) for said carrier which delays the phones launch in every case. And since nearly every carrier uses different 3G bands, the result is you either are lucky enough to get the phone on your carrier or switch carriers...and forget about getting it unlocked (with 3G anyway) because that would undermine the contract signed by the device maker with the carrier. Can I just get the phone that I want? Is that asking too much?
Ok, I'm done...
They call this "subsidizing"? Really? What a joke. This is hardly subsidizing the device at all. It's like paying for the thing full price, locked, and under 2 year contract! Triple whammy! Only US consumers love being screwed by the wireless carriers.
no we don't.... Believe me we don't...
If you think you guys are being screwed by the carriers down in the US, take a look at the situation in Canada and you'll be thanking whatever deity you believe in every morning for the service quality and price you get. And the rest of the world will keep laughing at our pathetic North American cell phone industry.
I just hope Sprint doesnt go overboard and have this cost more than $580 which was the cost of the Touch Pro. For $350 you may as well save up the other $200 and buy off contract tho. Nobody is askin for this phone to be $99 after a contract cuz this is a REAL smartphone unlike fancy scrollin Iphones and Pre's with laughable keyboards. Once people find they can get this same phone on Sprint & Verizon for $299 (With Real 3G) T-Mobile is in trouble.
People pay shot load with plans and contracts, I mean thousands of dollars. I say buy a unlock phone and get a cheap pre-praid plan, business people need other features not on those plans though.
Exactly. Problem is, in the US, a lot of phones are not even available/sold unlocked. Even worse, some of them are filled with the carrier's junk firmware, complete with disabled features.
Depends on usage - I've been with Orange so long that with all my loyalty bonuses, that on a sim only contract I got 1200 minutes, unlimited landline minutes, unlimited texts, and data for about £22.
ill take one of these when they decide to add a goddamn 3.5mm jack into the phone. Its 2009 for godsake, let me use my own damn headphones you swines!
T-MOBILE IS SMOKING CRACK, NOT EVEN GOOD CRACK... LIKE CRACK THAT CAME OUT THE CRACK OF SOMEONES ASS
1. no 3.5mm jack on tmo version
2. tmo removed the front facing camera so no chance at all for video calling
3. and they changed the UI around
my brand new compaq presario notebook didnt cost $350 lmao!
so that would be ...... asscrack... LOL!!! Smoking asscrack!
Meh. They overcharged for a loooong time for the POS that was the "Wing" too. The ATT Tilt had been out long enough to be cheaper by the time they got rid of it.
T mo is not great on subsidies. Never have been. That said, the ATT Fuze (bought from ATT) is still more expensive than the iPhone 3G, and the iPhone 3GS 16gb, same price as the 32gb 3GS. And by tech standards it's an old phone.
The problem is feature phones like the iPhone and Pre have the volume to realize low prices. Other phones can't match that, and look expensive in comparison as a result. The Hermes (ATT 8525) was $400 for a looooong time. It was before the iPhone set the $200 bar.
Volume and hype have made the marketplace very difficult.
cool point man
I agree man, That's the classic problem with HTC smartphones.
I owned the 8125 (wizard) and the 8525 (Hermes) before getting drunk and losing it and eventually getting the iPhone and while both were excellent at what they did (everything) and they oozed quality (even in their plastic shells) but the iPhone was designed to be sold in the millions something HTC can only dream to do.
they aren't fashinable. they are functional. only business types (and gadget geeks and show offs) want phones like these. the masses want flip phones and iphones.
until that changes (never) we'll never see a difference in prices
Again, I think you need to say what the monthly price is, not just the up front cost. In Economics & Finance, there is a concept called "present value". Basically, you discount all future payment to get the amount you'd have to put in the bank (or invest) today to get the desired amount at the specified point in the future. Since I don't think you Engadget people know too much about discounting, how about you just do the sums - how much do you have to pay for the device if you add up up-front costs AND monthly payments over the 2-yr period? Then do the same for the iPhone and you've got yourself a more sensible comparison.
I think the touch pro 2 would STILL be higher, since tmobile, like att is making the data plan mandatory. so ($199 + x) < ($349 + x) where x is the monthly cost of data plan + talktime.
lol "hits the sauce"
While I agree the price is overcharged, what's with this line:
"with its last-gen iPhone 3G at $99, any well-specced phone hitting the airwaves these days for over a buck ninety-nine on contract just seems outrageous"
So now, every other phone maker needs to charge what the last generation iphone is charging? Excuse me, but this is new technology for business use, just as the new iphone 3gs is new for entertainment use, it should compete according, as should other phones, 200-300$ on contract. But really, htc hasn't upgraded their processor, nor ram, nor included any interior memory, nor a memory stick, so it's quite alot to charge for a htc touch pro with a bigger screen, removed flash for camera, etc.
But what bugs me is that, according to endaget, it's "outrageous" for any well-specced phone to charge over 99$ due to the fact that apple is asking such for the last gen iphone, give me a break engadget...
Damn straight! besides what is the sum of all amount at the end of the 2y contract? the iphone costs the most at the end of the 2years.
I heartily agree... do we really have to add to Apple's marketing campaign? XD
In any case, this IS a little hot for my blood... since I don't need as many business apps and such, I'm going to go for the MyTouch3G upgrade within the month.
Well said.
+1
Just called tmobile she said the price will change after 10pm est
Well, its 4 am pacific time and there has not been any communication from the higher ups about a price change, and the website is still at 349.99. That has been the price and still is the price.
"any well-specced phone hitting the airwaves these days for over a buck ninety-nine on contract just seems outrageous"
Why do I get the distinct feeling that the author has a $300 iPhone in his pocket right now?
he may actually have 2.... As my idiotic bro-n-law does....
I have had a HTC Kaiser (unlocked Tilt) on T-Mobile since the moment it came out and was planning to upgrade to the Touch Pro 2 this month, if it were $199 or below.
However, with all the options that exist in the smart-phone category, expecting anyone (especially long-time customers) to pay upwards of $150 more for the phone on contract than they would with other carriers is a insult. My point being, $150 over 2 years is not a big deal.. being dicks to your loyal customers is!
$150 over the other carrier's? Did the touch pro2 pricing for at&t, sprint and verizon leak or are you comparing it to the iphone?
"buck ninety-nine" = $199
Really? I just walked into a T-Mobile store here in Boston. I'm eligible for a full upgrade, and I was quoted $349.99 PLUS an $18.00 upgrade fee. This was at 9:45am EST. I also called another store and was quoted the same $349.99 price plus the upgrade fee. What store or site lists the $279.99
Quit comparing a Windows Mobile phone with the iPhones. They aren't even in the same league. WM phones aren't controlled by a monoplizing corporation either. No one tells me what I can and can't put on my HTC Touch. No one tells anyone what software for WM they can/can't make. No one is going to brick my phone if I install an app or even ROM they don't want me to have (because there is no "don't want" from my carrier or Microsoft).
Also, with the same plan usage a WM user will incur less TCO than an iPhone user. For two iphones, my neighbor pays monthly almost as much as I do for three WM phones on my plan. However, I get twice the peak minutes, earlier off-peak, unlimited data, unlimited text, I can tether and I can install whatever I want with MORE software available to install. Better yet, he's on his FOURTH iPhone (he got one the first day) while I'm still on my original HTC Touch.
iphone 3gs+$80 data/voice plan (900 min, unl data and email, and 200 sms)= 2119 over 2 years
tp 2+$75 data/voice (1000 min, unl data and email, and unl sms)= 2150 over 2 years
yes the tp2 does cost much more upfront, but over the course of the contract it is only 30 dollars more. i think the big kicker (for me at least) is the unlimited texts you get with t-mobile. i think as an average consumer the iphone is great. it has much more of a cool factor to it. with the tp2 it's more for the business user.
350 is crazy. I think tmobile was testing the water with the 279 price and was seeing how we would react to it but my main problem is that i am required to purchase the data plan to even get that price. Why even put wifi on the phone if you're gonna make me use you 3G service. Im at UF and theres wifi everywhere. Just to mention, I think this is the first winmo phone to ever require that shit data plan. Come on TMO.
I'd just like to give a wag of my finger to T-Mobile's tween grammar:
"5 row's QWERTY keyboard"
Oh, so many things wrong with this. Firstly, "rows" looks like it should be plural, since there are (in fact) five of them. So, five rows' (plural possessive, ladies and gentlemen). But now we get: "five rows' QWERTY keyboard." But THAT'S not correct either, since each row does not have its own complete keyboard. However, each complete keyboard has five rows, so perhaps it should be written, "QWERTY five-row keyboard." Also, you may have noticed I've been correcting it this whole time, but "5" is only "5" when it's a number (like 555 Wisteria Lane). When it's an amount, it's "five".
Oh, T-Mobile. As soon as you sell one of these, I hope you use the gouged profits to hire a starving English major to proof your web copy.
It's on Wirefly.com and letstalk.com already for $199. I always go there for my phones, they are usually free. I got a $100 rebate plus a free Wing from Letstalk. Upgrades are cheaper at those two places too.
I hope T-Mobile has plenty of warehouse space for these. They'll sit on the shelf forever.
The phone is 149.99 on contract with the promo code "windows mobile".