Nokia cuts phone prices across the board, S60 biting deep into dumbphone territory
By Chris Ziegler 
posted February 2nd 2010 1:19PM
posted February 2nd 2010 1:19PM
The company notes that this is nothing more than a regularly-scheduled adjustment, but for what it's worth, Nokia has quietly lowered prices across its entire range, in some cases by as much as 10 percent -- nothing to sneeze at. Notably, the S60 5th Edition-based 5230 is now selling for €170 (about $239) in Finland, making it considerably cheaper than dozens of mid- to high-end feature phones -- an interesting reversal of fortune that puts Nokia precisely where it says it wants to be for positioning S60 as The People's Platform as it sprinkles Maemo through the upper end of the lineup. Where this ultimately leaves Series 40 remains to be seen, but at the rate these guys are going with the mainstream push for S60, it may not matter in a year or two.
Glad this is finally getting more publicity. Outside of Symbian, no other smartphone OS is available for such a low entry price. And spec and feature wise, it matches or exceeds devices running Android, Web OS, WinMo, Blackberry OS, and the iPhone OS that regularly cost $450-$600+.
Until the competition can address these more accessible price points, they'll never match Nokia's dominance. Only Nokia is close to the mythical $100 converged device, and for $225-$375, No one offers anything worth buying. Android is close, but so far behind architecture wise to matter.
Now let's see how long it takes Apple to offer a sub $300 converged device... (good luck with that)
@christexaport Most US consumers by phones subsidized and dont care about the specs.
@teapower,
Well that was the case a few years ago, but the US market has gotten smarter quite quickly. Useability is still important during the learning curve, but other features are beginning to matter as well.
And as for subsidies, both at&t and TMobileUSA plan to subsidize Nokia converged devices this year. Both are profit hungry, and having an offering that tends to require a data plan that can be subsidized even lightly at just $200, which is a light subsidy by US standards, allows them to offer devices at a sub $50 price point or even free! And I promise you, free is important to everyone in this economy. It will force Apple, the various Android device manufacturers, and others to justify the wide price disparity for less capable device with missing features.
Once Symbian^4 gets here in 10 months, ease of use and capacitive screens won't be a valid argument. The competition had 3 years to gain ground, but failed to match Nokia/Symbian's accessibility, reach, or feature set. Now the new UI and Qt application support will widen the gap further, and the US will finally learn why Nokia is king.
Who else has a smartphone with a sub $300 pricepoint that outperforms the iPhone and Android OS feature for feature? If you DON'T plan on spending $450+ on a device, Symbian is the only game in town.
Looks like Nokia is executing beautifully on their strategy announced last year. It seems to me that they will be able to have a firm grip on the market for mid level and lower end smart phones using their (soon to be updated) Symbian OS based phones. Add to that free OVI navigation and they are hard to beat.
iPhone and Android have a high mind share (and high US market share) in the high end area. If Nokia is able to position Maemo square into this market, they will own even more of the mobile market. If they execute here as well as they do in low and mid level markets, even consumers in the US will understand that there is a potent king in town. And it is not Apple!
We knew this was their strategy and given the world economy and evidence of the sales volumes it seems to have been a smart one.
Regarding s40, what have you been hearing Chris?
From all I've heard, Nokia still want to keep s40 for the $50-250 range and they are updating version6 for touchscreens.
Makes sense but with s60 moving down do you think they will fragment the market? i.e keeping S^4 for the N series and s60v5 for the lower ends?