All the posts about the N900 are swirling around. It is indeed a VERY sexy device and I am proud maemo development team for producing such an amazing piece of technology.
The price ... What can I say? 500 British pounds = 812.5 U.S. dollars
What's the target market for the N900 at that rate? This may be status quo for luxury devices in some parts of the world, but Nseries phones never took off in the US. My guess: Wealthy hackers who aren't already fascinated by iPhones or Android phones. I am sure both of them will be thrilled to buy it. For perspective, here is some more stuff you can buy for US $800:
Electronics: (prices as of today from bestbuy.com)
A Dell Studio Core2Duo T6500, 4GB, DVDRW, 17" Widescreen, 320GB HDD.
An LG 42" 1080p LCD HDTV
Three Asus Eee 900 netbooks
I suppose cutting-edge technology deserves a cutting-edge price, but the US consumer luxury device is lower than it has been in a long time. It's a good thing for Nokia that they don't focus on the US for their success.
19 comments:
Some stuff you're not considering:
1) Nokia prices their stuff differently in different regions. It's *never* a straight conversion. Often it ends up being 1:1 with US dollars and British pounds.
2) US carriers (T-Mobile) will probably subsidize it heavily.
I thought it was 500€ + VAT and as Jason said, the ratio has always been 1:1.
Hi Daniel,
This is the first time I comment on your blog since I don't really visit it but I need to give you a little information about prices so you don't feel to bad to buy things in US $.
First, as I recall, the price established on the keynote's presentation was 500 € (Euros), not 500 £ (British Pounds), it will still be over 700 US $ though...
That said, it wouldn't surprise me if the price there was converted as 500 USD which seems to be quite usual these days, like: 300 USD = 300 EUR.
Now that I know what I could afford to buy in the US here's some perspective on what 500 EUR are in Europe, particularly in my country, Portugal:
The minimum salary allowed by law for a full-time job (8 hours) are 450 EUR/Month. A graduate on engineering or so may get about 800 EUR/Month, for some reference on a high-tech job.
A room in Lisbon in a shared flat for 4 people may be around 250 EUR per person and for some real international rates perspective, the McDonalds BigMac Menu is around 5 EUR.
If you need a European country more well-known in the US, take Spain (where I live), which has a legal minimum salary of 600 EUR.
This is how rich we are in Europe and how poor you are in the US. Do you feel better?
Thanks for the comments.
JRocha: I did not imply that the US was poor compared to other countries. I just meant that US consumers are afraid of spending more than US $300 on a phone unless it has something absolutely amazing and necessary. Non-US customers are less accustomed to heavy subsidies (and cheaper phones) so even $500 US would be a hard sell in the US.
I heard an interesting quite the other day which seems relevant:
"I would only buy a £300 phone if it had £300 taped to it."
Check the unsubsidized price of an iPhone, and they're selling like hot cakes (around 1000 USD here in Switzerland (unlocked and without a contract)).
First time here but I had to say that you can pre order in the UK from the Nokia UK site.....£499 PLUS between £9.99--£3.99 for the postage!
So OVER £500 THEN!!!!!!
I think the OP has a point!!
Hi Thoughtfix. I've also been a long time reader and this is the first time I'm commenting. In truth, I think it's too early to tell what the "real" prices (subsidized or not) will be. As an example, I bought a Nokia e71 last year for about $400 (unlocked). To my shock, I later found out it was selling for less than $50 (with contract of course) in some parts of Central America. In March of this year I moved to France. Guess how much the E71 sells for here with a contract? ONE FREAKING EURO. Compare THAT to what I originally paid for my phone!
I figure if this thing comes out in October, the price will probably (and hopefully) go down y the start of next year.
Just my two cents.
I live in Nokia-land and if I remember correctly, I paid about 400 euros for my N800. My N80 was about 500, as well as my HTC Touch Diamond. So to me the price for a N900 seems completely normal. BUT: The stuff I have to pay premium for here in my country is *always* a lot cheaper in other countries (especially in the US, for some reason). So if I were you I wouldn't worry...
An iPhone (sans contract) here is around $600, and the N900 should be around 750.
What do you get for the extra $150 (or even 200)? 32 Gb, PLUS micro SD.
A 5Mp camera instead of the 1.3. Actually two, the movie/photo camera facing out and the webcam facing you.
Real Adobe Flash (I don't know if it can do live video streaming via flash, but websites dependent on flash will work).
User replaceable battery.
Maemo.org and others instead iTAS gatekeepers. Google Voice will probably work as will the other SIP apps.
GSM via any SIM card, (unconfirmed) so I can put my prepaid TMobile in if I want and have it work.
Thumb board instead of onscreen only.
3d acceleration on 800x480 instead of 320x240(?).
Standard usb connector.
The problem seems to be that it is a high-end machine. Depending on the model (new, not refurb) it has more storage than the three netbooks combined. The processor might have nearly the same throughput. And the battery will outlast the three netbooks used sequentially. The netbooks don't have bluetooth or GSM (but they do have ethernet). The EEE 900s don't even have one camera, so all three combined still have fewer than the N900
The price makes me go "Ouch" too which bothered me after expecting another N810 wimax priced device, but then the specs show I'm getting a lot for my money.
I can't think of anything on my wishlist for hardware that is not met or exceeded (some software questions remain but those would be fixable, 802.11n isn't on the list - ok it probably doesn't have a 3 axis accelerometer built in).
You can compare a porsche with a pickup with a luxury sedan, but the comparison isn't really meaningful.
This one device can replace both an iPhone and a netbook, a personal movie recorder, and digital camera for most people.
I don't know why everyone's moaning. At launch there was about £50 separating the proposed price for the N900 and my girlfriend's N85 - nonetheless I managed to get it for her at £22/month (18-month contract) when Orange UK finally picked the device up.
The only difference on pricing between the N900 and the N97 is going to be that you'll be getting more bang for your buck. Perhaps you'll need either a 2-year contract or at least a £30/month contract to get this phone but that's pretty damn reasonable considering what you have to pay for an iPhone (your right-arm and your soul, amongst other things).
On a more serious note, you cannot judge the actual, real-world price, of a phone from it's Nokia store price, it's just ludicrous. Just wait and see.
@Tz
True. But you have to take into account..
1) Who's going pay that much for it unlocked besides a few people? Most people are going buy it subsidized, not to mention most people who do buy iPhones I suspect go with the 8 or 16 GB option. Rarely 32.
2) Applications. The iPhone is more popular and already has a sizable headstart. Unless Nokia plans on subsidizng or giving them to Maemo developers for free (people who have brought wonderful software to Maemo4) then somehow I can't imagine seeing them coming to the n900. Making it even less attractive to consumers.
If Nokia is happy with having a small community then that's fine. But if their goal was to compete with Android/Pre/iPHone/etc.. they might need to lower the price to be competitive.
@(yet another)Laughing Man:
"If Nokia is happy with having a small community then that's fine"
Anssi VJ did mention that this is step 4 out of 5. This could also be taken as an indicator that Nokia is not even trying to take on iPhone with this one? :)
"The minimum salary allowed by law for a full-time job (8 hours) are 450 EUR/Month. A graduate on engineering or so may get about 800 EUR/Month, for some reference on a high-tech job."
800 €? Wtf is that? That's like what 4 times smaller price than the average salary in Finland.
@Kami: Finland has the highest level of income (etc) in Europe, and there are large differences in Europe.
Interesting discussion. Just for comparison's sake, in UK if you earn minimum wage, and at 40hours a week, you get +-£200.
That aside, £500 is a normal entry point for high-end phones in UK. the HTC Advantage (7500 or Athena) was £500. The N97 is still £500, and so is the N900.
Americans, you tend to complain too much about price points when they always have the sweeter end of the deal. You get a PS3 at $299, Europeans at 299Euro and Brits £250, when it should be £189 using the same conversion rate you bitch about.
It's $650 on NokiaUSA. You could have gotten used to the near 1:1 USD-EUR pricing on electronics.
Here in sweden it costs 5995,00 kr and that is 600 EUR.
http://shop.nokia.se/nokia-se/product.aspx?sku=6958233
500 pounds of 989 gold sounds better :D
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