• Phones Begging for a Price Revision

    Phones Begging for a Price Revision

    Rohan Naravane, Jul 13, 2010 1707 hrs IST

    Good phones that have not been able to become very successful due to their high price tag

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It is quite natural to expect a good bargain from a product we spend our hard earned money on. However, when we don't get that, we feel miserable and cheated. The pricing of a product nowadays is determined on its abilities, but more importantly, on what else is selling in the market.

For example, the iPhone was (and still is) down-right expensive at Rs. 30,000. But when a Google Nexus One or a Milestone gives you more features for a similar price, many feel it has better value.

There are phones in the market that have a decent feature set and performance but what makes them less successful is their unworthy cost. We pick a few phones and tell you what it should be priced at, thus making it a worthy buy.

HTC Hero

The HTC Hero was probably the first Android phone that actually fit the bill as a potential iPhone 3GS killer at that time. With a great design and a unique teflon coating on the white colored variant, the Hero definitely looked and felt the part. A nice 3.2-inch HVGA display complimented the eye-candy Sense UI customization over Google's operating system. The lengthy feature list did satisfy a potential smartphone buyer back then, and it will probably even today. The icing on the cake was the recent announcement of it getting the much-deserved Android 2.1 OS update. Why wouldn't one want to buy it?



Forget the initial selling price of Rs. 33,000 at launch, even today this phone does not sell for under Rs. 20,000 at most places. Why the high asking cost, we simply fail to understand. Especially when its successor, the HTC Legend, sells for as low as Rs. 23,000. The Legend adds a unibody aluminum design, an AMOLED display, a slightly faster processor and comes pre-installed with Android 2.1. Any sane person would pay the few extra thousand to get it instead of the Hero. Request to HTC: Drop its price down to Rs. 15,000 AT LEAST to make this old stallion's last run graceful.

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Discussion Board
(20) Comments
Amitrazeet Moha
,Berhmpur, on Aug 03, 2010 05:37 PM
SO NICE......................
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Robert
,Chennai, on Jul 31, 2010 01:47 AM
35,000 is a middle class mans salary? So India has mostly beggars and lower class! Where did you get the stats?
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Ravi Kumar Ravi
,Patna, on Jul 14, 2010 11:17 AM
I don't agree with you on "X10 mini". It has good price tag of approx 14000, if not you tell me another phone that gives us the feature and performance that X10 mini has. Its camera is not only 5MP but best performer also, music player is decent, touch screen is responsive and many other feature that makes it a good buy.
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Surenther
,Kochi, on Jul 14, 2010 11:30 AM
Check out samsung spica.. Costs 13k its having good processor compare to X10 mini. and also its supports andriod.Its display also good so you can run more apps
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rishank
,delhi, on Jul 16, 2010 07:23 PM
dude it seems tat u hav not seen it actually by ur eyes....the x10 mini is not worth 15k bucks
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Simon
,Cochin, on Jul 23, 2010 08:30 PM
+1 for Spica. It might even get Froyo. Sadly cant get my hands on one. :( Guys can some1 help out?
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Gaurav
,Bangalore, on Jul 14, 2010 09:16 AM
Most of these phones are made for countries where purchasing power is high. Unlike India where still 30K is considered a big amount, in European countries and US its not a big deal. None of these companies are forcing you to buy. Its your wish only to grab one of these beauties, and that's where they succeed.
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Aditya Menon
,Hyderabad, on Jul 15, 2010 01:28 AM
Exactly! Nobody is forcing him to buy the phones, nor is a phone an essential commodity. So what right does a critic have to tell a company how THEIR products should be priced? No right at all, if you ask me.
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Rohan
,Techtree, on Jul 23, 2010 01:52 PM
While the purchasing power may be higher, don't assume that in India it isn't lower by any means. All these companies wouldn't be willing to release such phones in the country otherwise. And it is just my opinion that the phones mentioned above would be worthy of buying if prices drop to levels i've mentioned. I believe I have even justified enough as to why they are overpriced at this point.
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Nesfield Sangma
,Tura, West Garo Hills, Meghalaya, on Jul 23, 2010 07:50 AM
I have solid issues wt HTC hero.My HTC hero bcame discolored at the first touch wt water. Patches of Black started appearing it its first touch wt water. No amount of erasing it wt cotton, soft cloth could bring back its original gun metal grey. I have asked everywhere for a new cover/shell but doesnt seem to exist or available. H HTC should atleast make available an alternative solution. Customers are willing to pay to get good service. Dont have a fly by night attitude.Post sales behaviour is a problem wt most of these manufactuirers.
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Mayank
,New Delhi, on Jul 21, 2010 05:48 PM
Nice review, and i agree with mr harrakirri......these guys should look at the buying power of the market in India. Cuz not a lotta guys in india are gonna spend a bomb on a new phone cuz of its features, except us technophiles. Most consumers buy on looks in india.....and price comes a very near second. Features awareness in india is pitiful after the basic eyegrabbing ones. Jaago India Jaago....and most of the features are available at much lower cost phones and some are actually great to use.
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Raj
,Jaipur, on Jul 13, 2010 06:02 PM
Mr. Rohan Naravane , This is by far the best review i have ever seen in Techtree . You should do the needful like this review.
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Bokachoda
,Delhi, on Jul 15, 2010 10:29 PM
Ab Kitna Bakwass karoge......
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harrakirri
,Karnataka, on Jul 15, 2010 12:22 AM
Nice article. Prices of these sets needs to fall. These companies have weak spot in name of Market Research(MR). These guys are unable to execute "skimming pricing" properly. The timing of MR is too long to effectively implement price revisions to be effective. I hope the company persons also listen to this.
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disgruntled_ana
,bangaluru, on Jul 13, 2010 11:22 PM
Do you really think that the phone companies don't do enough market research before launching a product ?. If you are so good at predicting sweet spots in the market, may be yous should join any manufacturers marketing team.
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Rotanguli
,Bangalore, on Jul 13, 2010 09:03 PM
Nice article Mr.Rohan. Its wonderful that Techtree is coming up with good quality articles, esp after the makeover of the website. Way to go Techtree. But the 'Word Verification' captcha are too weird to understand the alphabets.
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S M
,Mumbai, on Jul 13, 2010 08:23 PM
This covers only a few phones, a lot of them are grossly overpriced as of now.
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padmanabha
,bangalore, on Jul 13, 2010 08:09 PM
If u buy a phone for 35k and it drops to 20k within a year then how will the previous buyer feel, i guess apple is right in this regard by not slashing their prices so deep that user feels he shouldnt have bought at all. I have faced ts prob, i purchased iphone 3g and htc touch pro together in 2008, htc touch pro ceased to exist within a year while iphone still does its job well and atleast it has some value n more imp it gives its owner a lot of 'SATISFACTION'. tats y iphones are sold like hotcakes in other countries no matter what features they dont possess.
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Saket Iyer
,Rasayani, on Jul 13, 2010 06:23 PM
You can add the Nokia E52 to the list
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harman
,delhi, on Jul 13, 2010 06:13 PM
i dont agree with u in the case of se x10 mini... it is nicely priced... it ha5 mp camera... its price should be around 13000 but not 10000... its touch is better than all the other phones in the market in it price range..
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