Nokia drops phone prices to fend off Apple, Samsung
updated 08:50 am EST, Mon February 1, 2010
Nokia using price to win in entry smartphones
Nokia on Monday confirmed that it dropped prices on its phones in late January. Responding to rumors, the company says it has slashed the cost by an average of 10 percent as part of a "regular" price trimming across its line. While not applicable to every device, important phones like the 5230 now costs $236 off-contract, or just $69 above its cost to Nokia.
The cuts may help offset the traditional drop-off in sales after the holidays but primarily helps it defend against competitors in entry-level smartphones as well as upper-end media phones. Beyond Samsung and Sony Ericsson, Nokia has also had to worry about Apple and RIM taking smartphone share. Both of the American challengers have increasingly skewed towards lower prices with phones like the iPhone 3G and BlackBerry Curve 8500, which respectively sell for $99 and $50 on contract.
Despite the price drops, Nokia expects its share to stay flat in 2010.
Grizzled Veteran
Joined: Oct 1999
Desperation much?
Nokia management are really losing it! Having taken their eye off the ball in terms of reliability and usability over the past five years, probably due to dominance complacence, they think the market cares about price. When people are buying staples like bread and milk, they care about price, when people are buying lifestyle items, they don't, at least not to the same extent. In fact, cheapening your brand can actually harm sales. Remember the famous Stella Artois campaign for a French beer of dubious quality, they triumphed in the market by selling it as "reassuringly expensive". Now that's genius! Unfortunately, it's clear that there are no geniuses working for Nokia!