HTC Evo 4G Price Increase, Most Expensive Android Yet?

[Alchematron]

HTC Evo 4G Price Increase, Most Expensive Android Yet?

Yesterday, Microsoft made their deal with HTC official by announcing the Taiwanese company will pay them royalties for every Android built.

The news comes shortly after allegations by Microsoft that Google's Android platform was infringing on a number of their patents. Obviously to not get pulled into any further litigation and possibly delays for the release of the their latest Android, the HTC Evo 4G, the phone maker may have decided it was better to pay Microsoft the licensing fees to use Google's Android platform and avoid any repercussions in the future.

What this means for HTC Evo 4G prices?

The Sprint HTC Evo 4G, which is expected to release sometime in June, is equipped with the free Android OS. Now that HTC will be required to pay royalties for every Android built there is no doubt it will cost them more to manufacture the smartphone. With Microsoft technologies priced somewhere on the higher end of the scale, and Sprint's reported $865 million losses and 75,000 customers disbanding this quarter alone, we can only see HTC or the customer left to absorb the increased cost.

OZCAR says: The situation at HTC isn't too good either. Two days ago we reported on the possibility that they may need to pay Klausner Technologies royalties for infringing on their patents. Furthermore, the HTC Apple lawsuit is still in progress. So it seems quite plausible that consumers may be left to fork out the extra cash for buying a HTC branded Android phone.

 

[Corriewf]

I don't think it will effect the EVO...Maybe future phones.

 

[MannyZ28]

You believe in Ozcar?

The losses and customer loss that Sprint is reporting is actually an improvement for them, a quite large one at that, especially the loss of customers is half of the previous quarter.

This guy is doing some creative reporting just so people will read it. Doom and Gloom seems to be in now, so he's just putting 2 and 2 together and gets 2343. Last I checked, Sprint buys the phone from HTC, then subsidizes it and we get to pay the price Sprint charges us. If anyone is in charge of final pricing it's Sprint. They need to figure out the best combo between not scaring customers away, and not making a loss.

That guy also failed to report the positive results HTC had and what they are looking forward to in the next quarter.

My guess is still $199.00, they have to stay competetive.

 

[fr4nk1yn]

IIRC the license fees for WM worked out to be something like $8 a phone.
I doubt the royalties will be higher than that. OK so my Evo will now be $207, I'm fine with that.
Point is if it increases prices it won't be much.

 

[dwhitman]

The price of a phone end users pay is only tenuously connected to the cost of producing the device. Carriers buy devices under huge negoiated contracts, and sell them to end users at heavily subsidized prices - they generally lose money on the device...but more than make it up in network charges over the course of a contract. Hence ETFs, which guaratee that they cover the cost of the device.

Sprint will almost certainly price the Evo competitively with similar high-end smartphones in their and competitor's product lines, no matter what HTC's cost to manufacture is. That means about $200 +/- 50 after MIR.

 

[alan7467]

The price of a phone end users pay is only tenuously connected to the cost of producing the device. Carriers buy devices under huge negoiated contracts, and sell them to end users at heavily subsidized prices - they generally lose money on the device...but more than make it up in network charges over the course of a contract. Hence ETFs, which guaratee that they cover the cost of the device.

Sprint will almost certainly price the Evo competitively with similar high-end smartphones in their and competitor's product lines, no matter what HTC's cost to manufacture is. That means about $200 +/- 50 after MIR.

^------------This.

 

[6tr6tr]

Agree with dwhitman but even so, as long as Sprint enables voice+data at the same time, this thing will sell. Without voice+data simultaneously, Sprint won't gain many new customers with this device. With it, it's the first device I've felt could actually steal iPhone customers.

 

[Tattrpuff]

From this point on IMO people should be banned for posting Ozcar links! They are the most worthless "news" source out there. Most of the time, there are sentences that don't even make grammatical sense.

 

[yazman666]

I dont really think this will affect the EVO pricing at all and if it does as already mentioned above it will not be more than $8 bucks

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

HTC stands to make millions from WP7 devices this holiday season. No matter how stupid Microsoft's complaint that Linux, and in turn Android infringes, they paid it to keep good business relations.

Non-issue, and as was mentioned -- Ozcar ...lulz.

 

[bdarknessb]

I'm fairly certain Sprint will not charge more than 199.99, to compete with Verizons Incredible, although it's a tad bit inferior. This will attract more customers to Sprint, and as someone stated previously, Sprint decides the price to charge customers. It would be wise of them to ignore this small charge to keep from discouraging customers.

So as for all potential Evo owners, theres no need for us to worry.