What happened to the $199 price point?

[dmchenry35]

WTF happened to the $199 price point phones used to be introduced at? That was the gold standard not even 4 months ago, but since then I'm starting to see more and more phones released at the $200+ price point for new two year contracts, yet the iphone 4s, remains there.

What gives, these companies started charging more for early terminations on smart phones because of the subsidized cost (fair enough), but now the new two year contract price is going up, and the termination fees remain the same.

w.t.f.

 

[jdbower]

Phone got better and more expensive. Personally it would be nice to get $10/month off my bill and let me pay full price on the phone.

 

[bkorver]

LTE happened to the $200.00 price point... 3g phones are still $200.00.

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[janas19]

Just a personal observation, as processor and microtechnology continues to move forward, phones are increasingly evolving into miniature PCs that perform the functions of many different devices in one. For example, the iPhone 4 is not just a phone, it's a GPS device, MP3 player, PC, web browser, barcode scanner etc all rolled into one. All that tech in a single unit is what causes the high prices. So the trend appears to be consolidation of mulitple electronic devices into one smaller and powerful device, causing the extravagant price

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[BlackHawkA4]

The Epic 4g came out at 250 initially. And then it dropped quickly to 199 since the Evo was 199 and it was driving customers away.

I still think 200 is a fair price even for the phones that come out today. Maybe next year if they are quad core I could see a price hike. But, now, what's this we see on the front page?! $289 for the Galaxy Nexus. GTFO here.

 

[someguy01234]

If it's any consolation, I bought the Galaxy S II outright for $550 and will do the same for the Nexus, which probably will be more expensive than that when it come out, I'm expecting its going to be $700. I think the bigger concern is how expensive the carrier plan is.

When I signed up for Sprint in 2007, I remembered paying $350 for their flagship phone, the TouchPro2 Windows Mobile phone, it was crap even with custom rom. Wow, they come a long way.

 

[saraera]

It seriously sucks to see newer phones being more expensive but I guess it is because they're getting better.. Although if I'm tied down to a 2 year contract with the phone, it'd be nice if it was so expensive.
Really? $289 for the Galaxy Nexus?
I wonder how high it'll go when better phones come out later..