Why £399 not £359

[cmenon12]

Hi,

Why has the price for the Moto X Style gone up in the UK?? It was predicted to be £359, but now you can pre-order the Moto X Style off the Motorola store (32 GB, no additional things/covers) for £399!! This is just too much as it contradicts all the predictions, and it isn't such a good-value-for-money phone as advertised. It also doesn't match up with the exchange rate between pounds and dollars, as the phone costs $399. If the £399 was to be accurately converted to dollars, it would cost over $600. I have emailed the Motorola support team and I am waiting for a reply.

Has anyone got any theories/ideas why this has happened? It has really ruined the idea that the phone was at an affordable price, as it isn't so much now, at least not for people in the UK.

 

[Ry]

Just to clarify, these were predictions, correct?

 

[jonathonpm]

I was surprised to see the phone priced at £399 but was glad to see it was the 32GB option and not the 16GB option, which is offered as the base spec in America. For the memory upgrade there they charge an extra $50 so we are paying a little more for those extra 16GB.

This won't be the first or last device where the UK advertised price is at a £1 to $1 rate and I've sort of come to expect it. One thing to bare in mind is that VAT is added on top of the US price while it is included in the UK price. Our VAT is also 20% while I think it is typically below or 10% in the states.

So if you subtract 20% tax and downgrade the memory (subtract $50) the UK price is £299.89 compared to a converted US price of £260.21. Yes it is more and there maybe other factors like import duties, exchange rate flucation, and operating costs for the smaller market that I have not considered but in general it is not as bad as it first looks.

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[andy a]

Well Clove technology UK are selling this phone in black 32gb for £350 so that is where I will buy mine from and it looks great in black but black is your only choice.

 

[jonathonpm]

That is a good deal. I really wanted one with a wood back but it is hard to justify an extra £70 for it.

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[andy a]

That is a good deal. I really wanted one with a wood back but it is hard to justify an extra £70 for it.

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I agree it is hard to justify and the phone looks great in black.

 

[cmenon12]

Got a reply from Motorola, this is what they said:

Thank you for contacting Motorola Mobility Europe.

I would like to inform you that the £359,- is unfortunately speculation mainly by the media. Motorola has not made any announcements on the price of the MOTO X Style before the pre-order.

The reason why the the MOTO X Style is more expensive in Europe is because:
> There is no such thing as national VAT in the USA which we do have in Europe. That is a reason why we pay 20% more then the USA.
> The export/import prices are more expensive then in the USA.
> Motorola has to commit to certain European tax regulations in order to sell the product in Europe which increases the price as well.
> The phones are not the same. The USA sells the MOTO X Pure and in Europe we sell the MOTO X Style which are different from each other in the hard/software aspect.

This does seem to make sense, but I am still quite suprised at just how big the taxes, import prices and regulation costs are.
What do you guys think? Also I'm not 100% what they mean when they say the phones are not the same. I thought that the Moto X Pure Edition WAS the Moto X Style, just working on all USA carriers and not purchasable from carriers, am I missing something??

 

[jonathonpm]

Got a reply from Motorola, this is what they said:



This does seem to make sense, but I am still quite suprised at just how big the taxes, import prices and regulation costs are.
What do you guys think? Also I'm not 100% what they mean when they say the phones are not the same. I thought that the Moto X Pure Edition WAS the Moto X Style, just working on all USA carriers and not purchasable from carriers, am I missing something??

The phones may have different radio bands though I don't know for sure. The US uses different LTE bands than most of the rest of the world. I've picked up phones over there before but the LTE doesn't work back here but at the time it didn't matter to me but now it does. I'm not sure how this would really impact the price though so I'd personally say it is more down to higher costs from taxes/duties/regulatory stuff as virtually all electronics are cheaper in the states.

 

[GeordieAffy]

Someone from Motorola must have mensioned the £359 price. Every website couldnt have just ran with speculation surely. And Motorola should have prevented them from running it by just coming out with the price pre-release like they did in the US.

Arses.

Probs will still buy it though lol

Sent from S3 via Tapatalk App.

 

[jonathonpm]

Handtec have the Style in white with a bamboo back for £347. I can't link as haven't posted enough but you can find it on hotukdeals.

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[GeordieAffy]

Handtec have the Style in white with a bamboo back for £347. I can't link as haven't posted enough but you can find it on hotukdeals.

Posted via the Android Central App

http://www.handtec.co.uk/motorola-moto-x-style-32gb-smartphone-white-bamboo.html

Sent from S3 via Tapatalk App.

 

[jonathonpm]

Thanks. I'm tempted but think I'll wait to see the new nexus phones first.

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[StrikerXL]

Hi,

Why has the price for the Moto X Style gone up in the UK?? It was predicted to be £359, but now you can pre-order the Moto X Style off the Motorola store (32 GB, no additional things/covers) for £399!! This is just too much as it contradicts all the predictions, and it isn't such a good-value-for-money phone as advertised. It also doesn't match up with the exchange rate between pounds and dollars, as the phone costs $399. If the £399 was to be accurately converted to dollars, it would cost over $600. I have emailed the Motorola support team and I am waiting for a reply.

Has anyone got any theories/ideas why this has happened? It has really ruined the idea that the phone was at an affordable price, as it isn't so much now, at least not for people in the UK.

I have payed € 499,99 for my 32 GB retail Black version. I'm happy with the choice I made coming from the OnePlus One, but the price should have been lower. The main reason is, because in certain countries you pay the retail price and not the price from direct distribution channel like Moto Maker. I live in Belgium and would love to had the choice making my own Moto X Style, but I didn't got the option to do so.

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