ATT Black Friday aims to clear WP7, BlackBerry

AT&T's annual Black Friday weekend sale [updated Friday] will see it once again try to aggressively move Windows Phone hardware. On November 26, the company plans to sell "all" Windows Phone 7 devices for one cent on a contract. The discounting includes brand-new phones like the Samsung Focus S and Focus Flash as well as the HTC Titan, which is just reaching the carrier the same day.

The sale appears to follow a pattern of discounting devices that aren't selling well either due to customer views and age. It also plans to sell the BlackBerry Torch 9860 on November 27 for the same one cent along with the much older red HTC Inspire 4G still carrying a $30 price. November 28 will see a mix of older, usually obsoleted phones going for similar one-penny pricing, including the original Atrix 4G, BlackBerry Torch 9810, the regular HTC Inspire 4G, the LG Thrill 4G, and the Samsung Infuse 4G.

Sales start Friday, when a number of touch devices, including tablets, sell for "unbelievably low" prices. It's presumed this excludes iPads given Apple's historical resistance to, and lack of a need for, discounting its tablet.

Neither AT&T nor Microsoft has given out Windows Phone sales numbers beyond the first few months last year. Recent Gartner data, however, points to the platform having 1.5 percent of the market and having been largely flat in sheer units for most of 2011. A sale so early suggests a possible repeat of steep discounting from last year and that the Windows Phones might not be selling quickly in their first few weeks.

By Electronista Staff

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