Poll: Did Sprint drop the ball on pricing??

[appollod]

I think Sprint also targeted this phone at business users (e.g. Blackberry users). The hotspot capability (that $30/month fee dwarfs any $50 sales cost) and 4G connectivity in many cities along with a keyboard will tempt many business users. And since the business is paying for it, they are more likely to look at overall total cost (yearly phone cost vs just sales price).

I'm also amazed at how many people on this board have to save up just to pay the $250 initial cost. If that's true, I'm surprised you can afford a $70/month phone bill. But hey, maybe I don't really understand the market or the customers.

 

[happasaiyan]

This is not a $600 device. It is a $200-$250ish device. That is what Sprint pays for it when they buy from Samsung. All this stuff about R&D costs is irrelevant, since those or Samsungs costs, not Sprints. Like I said, Sprint can afford to give them away for free, cover the cost of the phone with the 4G tax, and make money off the standard data plan. That is what they would do if they actually wanted to gain subscribers.

lol. right.

 

[ben7337]

I think Sprint also targeted this phone at business users (e.g. Blackberry users). The hotspot capability (that $30/month fee dwarfs any $50 sales cost) and 4G connectivity in many cities along with a keyboard will tempt many business users. And since the business is paying for it, they are more likely to look at overall total cost (yearly phone cost vs just sales price).

I'm also amazed at how many people on this board have to save up just to pay the $250 initial cost. If that's true, I'm surprised you can afford a $70/month phone bill. But hey, maybe I don't really understand the market or the customers.

You'd be surprised. I know someone who worked full time making maybe $10-$12/hr and she had a motorola droid, and must have been paying $90 or more a month. In the consumer society of america, even minimum wage workers can afford a high end cellphone somehow. It does boggle my mind though.

 

[TripleAgent]

This is not a $600 device. It is a $200-$250ish device. That is what Sprint pays for it when they buy from Samsung. All this stuff about R&D costs is irrelevant, since those or Samsungs costs, not Sprints. Like I said, Sprint can afford to give them away for free, cover the cost of the phone with the 4G tax, and make money off the standard data plan. That is what they would do if they actually wanted to gain subscribers.

From your first 5 lines, I can tell you do not understand too much about this industry. It's ok though, most people do not. When I have time later today I'll explain it more in depth, but I can assure you that is NOT what Sprint pays per device.

While drizek is clearly misinformed, he still has a point. How will they combat the stiff competition and become #2 or #1 by not being aggressive. I wholeheartedly see the phone being more, as it is the ONLY one that is more than cosmetically different (HW keyboard), but they botched the Evo by having less than adequate stock, why not make the new flagship easier to acquire? Why not advertise ahead of time? Why nickel and dime with the "4G tax" and STILL charge more? In my view, they just gave people the only good excuses not to try them out.

Sprint is probably taking the usual loss per device, maybe a bit more, but that's par for the course. They would easily make it up in volume from plan charges and "4G taxes". If I was #3 and facing the iPhone juggernaut, I would make it a point to advertise how much cheaper the total costs are and try to get people in the door with an initial lower cost to the device. Sprint has the tools, they just don't use them to their fullest potential.

 

[gotthelife4u]

You'd be surprised. I know someone who worked full time making maybe $10-$12/hr and she had a motorola droid, and must have been paying $90 or more a month. In the consumer society of america, even minimum wage workers can afford a high end cellphone somehow. It does boggle my mind though.

I know a bunch of people that do this. Yeah they have a nice phone that costs them a lot of money a month. But when it comes time to put gas in the car they are only putting 10-20 bucks in at a time and living off ramen. When I was working minimum wage I had a cheap samsung flip phone on verizon and one of their cheap non nation wide talk plans. Mind you this was like 8 years ago. But hey at least I could fill the tank and eat real food. LOL

 

[buzzardjrt]

Generally i dont have a problem with pricing of these phones since your normally getting them at cost and they just charge an extra $10 or so a month to make up the difference. so i am sure with all that is included in this phone it is worth it. it is an awesome phone and i will buy it.

my biggest gripe, and i think a down fall of Sprint, is they dont drop the price of their phones after they have gone stale. they will SOMETIMES but its a rare. the pre is still 149.00 and it s old now compared to what is out there when other carriers have it for cheaper.

is this phone worth $249? probably, hell its faster and better then my desk top that is only 3 years old.

 

[p08757]

I don't understand. The REAL cost of the phone is in the monthly service fees.

An extra $50 bucks is just a drop in the bucket over 2 years.

 

[cr3amy]

I don't understand. The REAL cost of the phone is in the monthly service fees.

An extra $50 bucks is just a drop in the bucket over 2 years.

Thank you! As is, btw, the $10 "tax" everyone keeps whining about that's still way cheaper than other providers.

 

[Ilmater]

That still doesn't justify the price. The bottom line is that Sprint is ripping us off. I like to get a new phone every year, but if the prices keep creeping up it stops being so easy to justify it. I'm going to buy it anyway, but I still think it is a rip off. It's like my iPad, it shouldn't cost more than $350 or so, but I love it and would buy it again for 500.

The EPIC costs samsung, at most, $10 more to manufacture than a Captivate. Keep in mind that they are gimping the ROM from 16GB down to just 1GB. Cutting the memory easily covers the cost of the 4G chip. The LED on the back probably costs somewhere between 0.9 cents and 1.3 cents, the camera on the front is probably a dollar. The keyboard rounds out the rest of the 10 dollars, and I'm being generous. Keep in mind that the Epic is made out of cheaper materials than the metal on the captivate, with that cool sliding battery cover.

But you're forgetting that in lieu of the 16GB internal memory, it has a 16GB micro SD card. That is AT LEAST $20 in cost, and more usable than internal memory since you can switch it from device to device, and you can load music or movies to your device without plugging it into a computer as most computers now have slots for those cards, or, if you're like me, you have an adapter for these cards.

 

[smccloud]

Come June when my upgrade is due I will probably look into the Epic. Provided it has at least been rooted so I can load Wireless Teather for root users on it. I don't like the idea of paying $30 a month for the hotspot feature when I use it at most once every other month. Until then, I will continue to drool over the Evo and be happy with my Hero.

 

[nfollin]

SERIOUSLY?

Guy's its $50 more than the other versions, sims 3 is around 10 dollars as is Avatar, probably less for a bulk deal.

An Epic has extra HARDWARE. Lets list it hmm?

Front facing camera
Hardware Keyboard

Both of those cost money, and it comes with a 16 GB sdcard, the Vibrant comes with a 2GB sd card. Please explain how this is a rip off? You just get more?

 

[ben7337]

Guy's its $50 more than the other versions, sims 3 is around 10 dollars as is Avatar, probably less for a bulk deal.

An Epic has extra HARDWARE. Lets list it hmm?

Front facing camera
Hardware Keyboard

Both of those cost money, and it comes with a 16 GB sdcard, the Vibrant comes with a 2GB sd card. Please explain how this is a rip off? You just get more?

Yes, but it also only has 1GB of internal memory. I'd rather get 16GB built in and no microsd card than a 16GB card and only 1 GB internally.

Also look at some of the foreign countries, the Galaxy S can be had for free with a contract. The $200 price is justified. If anything the only reason I think the Epic 4G ended up being $250 is because the EVO is $200 and still new, and they couldn't make the epic the same price with better specs, nor could they lower the EVO price, plus it is fairly low on stock, so it makes sense that the EPIC had to get the next price point.

 

[mturner7472]

i get that the epic comes with "more" ...

but the problem here is ... that only people reading THESE FORUMS will know this ... the average customer won't know any better

that's what kills me about the iphone or mot-droid devices ... the number of DIFFERENT commercials and the frequency they are seen ... no wonder they sell so many ... the average customer doesn't know the nitty-gritty of each of these devices like we (the readers of these forums) do ... and lets face it ... our numbers aren't huge

sprint will never get the ads right ...

 

[mturner7472]

ben ... agree totally on the newness of the evo and it's pricing compared to what they've done with the epic ...

 

[Doc]

I believe that most people will compare this phone with the EVO and will only see that the Epic has a slide out keyboard while the EVO does not. As such many people may not feel that $50 is worth the cost of a physical keyboard.

Just my $0.02

Doc

 

[Dhamp2g]

Say what ever you want Sprint needs customers they must throw in extras to get people to switch. They can't charge more in their situation. I have an EVO on sprint and its great.
SPRINT U ALWAYS FIND A WAY 2 FUK UP. When will they figure it out. Right now people don't care that its 4g wit Verizon launching its LTE in a few months.

 

[awesomedeals88]

No matter what, your going to pay $300 even if the Samsung Epic 4g is $250. Remember tax in California is 9.75%. Your paying tax from the retail price of $499.

Remember if you were going to buy a 16gb micro sd card from Frys or any electronics store, the average price will be $40. Your getting it included with the phone.

Im still buying this phone for $250 + tax since its way way better than the Samsung Moment im currently using.

 

[r-nice]

Thanks, reserved.

My upgrade date is September 1st, and thankfully they will hold it until then. I'm going to try and get it from Best Buy though, I don't want to deal with the rebate, and hopefully Best Buy will have the good sense to price match the iPhone, Droid X and EVO, or at hte very least the $229 price for the Vibrant and Captivate.

I doubt they'll price match for a different phone. If they do then they're fools.

 

[crcr]

I'm not buying one at either $200 or $250, as I am an Android dood on Verizon, but from a business point of view, my opinion is that Sprint screwed the pooch here.

IMHO, Sprint is giving up a lot of new customers by trying to squeeze that extra $50 on the initial sale.

Dumb a** business decision. A lesson in how to steal defeat from the jaws of victory. They may still do well with the phone, but they could have done oh so much better with it.

 

[flipdippy]

Come June it probably will be no longer for sale.

Talked to a couple friends of mine in product marketing at Sprint. This cost is to avoid cannibalizing sales of the EVO 4G.

Once EVO supply issues go away, the EVO will probably drop a bit in price on a 2 year contract ($149-$179) and the Epic will fall to the magic $199 price point.

Sprint isn't stupid, they are trying to balance the needs of subscribers, the needs of their OEMs, and the pressures from the competition.

Especially with probably what, another 2-4 Android handsets coming to Sprint between now and the holidays?