Motorola Razr V3 - Can You Hear Me Now?
The Internet rumor is that the Motorola Razr V3 (requires Flash to view the site) will apparently go on sale in the US through Cingular this coming Monday. Unfortunately, rather than have a price similar to the UK, where the V3 is already available for no cost with a new subscription , Cingular will price it at about $500USD with a two year minimum contract.
Sigh. I feared Cingular might do something like that.
Although, I suppose, much of the blame should be pointed
towards Motorola for having variable list prices based on
what they think they can extort the market will
bear.
But how does this build good will? How does this build the trust required to be willing to purchase a product? It appears Motorola isn't concerned that Samsung is eating its way towards second place (Nokia is number one and Moto number 2 according to this TheRegister article here) and will probably overtake them sometime early next year by selling exceptional phones at reasonable prices.
Motorola has been, for some time, trying to find its way back to the top of the field - a position it held since the beginning of the cell phone revolution. While technically speaking, the new V3 is a positive step in that direction, they may have more than neutralized that advantage by pricing the phone out of reach of 99 percent of the people Motorola hopes to sell to.
One can only hope that Motorola, and Cingular, see the competitive advantage to dropping the price, Real Soon Now. Otherwise, they will have wasted this opportunity and Motorola will continue the long, not so slow slide into oblivion.
Aloha!
Comments
The UK isn't as cheap as you'd think. All but the most expensive monthly tarrifs (eg. 75quid/month) charge you anything upto 350quid for this phone.
Couple this in to some of the sellers not allowing you to transfer your phone number when taking up the new subscription, and the phone doesn't look as good a deal over here as you'd think.
Posted by: Phil | November 11, 2004 03:13 AM