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Posts with tag price cut

Pre drops to $79.99 at Walmart


Hey, thought that $99.99 Amazon deal for a Palm Pre was really snazzy? Well today, Walmart appears to go one better by cutting the smartphone's price down to a staggering $79.99 (on contract and with mail-in rebate). If prices keep going this low, you can probably expect the Pixi to show up for about nothing (zero, zip, zilch) sooner rather than later. If you've been looking for a deal to get into the Pre, this is it... but too bad if you dropped $200 a few months ago.

[Via everythingpre]

Sprint now offering $100 service credit to Pre buyers who port a number

We were expecting a Pre price cut today, but it looks like Sprint has slightly different plans -- instead of lowering the outright price of the handset, the carrier is offering new Pre customers a $100 service credit if they port a number from a different carrier. Yeah, that's a little odd -- especially since the credit is spread out over three months, instead of applied all in one go. We're guessing Sprint and Palm are just trying to lure new sales without having to openly cut prices on the Pre and undo its "premium" image, but as far as psychological marketing tricks go, parceling out a discount over 12 weeks might be the least effective one we can think of -- we're pretty sure most people would rather take a $100 price cut at the top end of the deal. Still, the end result is that the Pre is now $100 cheaper for switchers -- anyone running out to buy one?

[Via Everything Pre]

Palm Pre rumored to be dropping to $150 on September 8th


We've already seen the Palm Pre dip below its $199 list price during a few limited, occasionally inadvertent sales, but it looks like it could soon be dropping well under the $200 mark for a slightly longer period of time -- at least if a purportedly legit leaked document is to be believed. According to PreCentral, the doc comes from someone working at a Sprint "indirect partner retail dealer," and quite clearly indicates that "indirect partners" will be able to sell the Pre for $149.99 (after a mail-in rebate) between September 8th and October 31st, 2009. Presumably, Sprint itself would also be offering the Pre for the same price during that time and, if the HTC Hero's $179.99 price tag on Sprint is any indication, there seems to be at least a decent chance that the price drop could eventually become a permanent one. Either way, we won't have to wait too long to see how this one pans out.

Quigo ad placement

T-Mobile lowers price of G1 admission in the UK to better compete


If you were a bit taken aback by the £40 ($59) monthly tariff required to take the G1 home for free, apparently you weren't alone. T-Mobile has hacked that requirement down to £30 ($44) per month, and while the carrier itself has said that it's not a reaction to poor sales, industry analysts are saying otherwise. In fact, a company spokesperson even states that it has chosen to "offer the device free with a £30 contract to make the pricing more competitive in light of recent device launches," even though it is "well on track to achieve [its] sales forecasts." Whatever the agenda, we're all about getting phones into hands for less, so three cheers all around. Except for you early adopters... bummer, eh?

[Via Pocket-lint]

Boost Mobile slashes prepaid rates, will modify unlimited usage plan


Sprint Nextel's Boost Mobile is doing anything it can to attract consumers, as evidenced by the 50% off fire sale on prepaid minutes. Yep, as of right now, Boost Mobile customers can phone up fellow sumo wrestlers while running up a bill at just $0.10 per minute compared to $0.20 per minute in the past. A Wall Street Journal report also states that it will be "modifying its unlimited-usage plan, though the company declined to specify how." Of note, the "new plans" may only be available in "select cities," so you should probably phone up a CSR or something to make sure you're really getting the lower rate. Or you can just holler "Where U AT?!" and see what kind of response you get.

[Via phonescoop]

Sprint drops Phone-as-Modem plan to $15 per month, adds stipulations

So there's good news and bad news, and we're not even giving you the option of choosing which you'd prefer to hear first (hint: it's the good). Sprint has dropped the price of its Phone-as-Modem plan (capped at 5GB monthly) to just $15 per month. Now, the rest of the story. First off, you must own a Power Vision phone with connection capabilities to a laptop. Next -- unlike the old PAM plan which ran $49.99 / month all by itself -- this "attachable plan" requires you to have another data plan already on your account. For instance, the BlackBerry Personal Pack ($30 / month) or the Worldwide Data Plan ($70 / month). In the end, it looks as if tethering in and of itself got cheaper, but those newfound strings that are reportedly attached will likely cause some frustration.

[Via phonescoop]

Quigo ad placement

Softbank lowers minimum iPhone 3G plans, begins taking reservations

Softbank can safely say it has a pretty decent quarter here recently, but compared to NTT DoCoMo, it's looking weak. The exclusive iPhone 3G carrier in Japan has decided to answer outcries of "too expensive!" by lowering the minimum monthly data charge that each iPhone 3G user must pay. Previously, users were forced to hand over ¥5,985 ($55) per month for unlimited data; now, users can pay just ¥1,695 ($16) per month to cover 20,175 packets of data "after which users will pay per-packet until 71,250 packets, at which time the previous ¥5,985 charge is reached and further data use is not charged." In semi-related news, the carrier has also announced that it will begin taking reservations for the handset, so yeah, there's that.

Palm Centro drops to $70 on contract with AT&T


Remember how we told you to expect some totally edge-of-your-seat, riveting price news in regard to Palm's Centro? Yeah, how's about $30 off? Presumably in conjunction with the iPhone 3G launch, AT&T has hacked the Palm Centro down to $70 after rebates (from $100) with a two-year agreement. There's no telling if the new price will sashay on over to those CDMA carriers or not, but we've got our fingers crossed real tight.

[Via Electronista]

O2 slashing 100 from 8GB iPhone in UK


The whispers are true, or so it seems. According to Stuff, O2 is getting set to one-up T-Mobile's price cutting affair in Germany by hacking a full £100 from the 8GB iPhone in the UK (bringing it down to £169). Better still, the discount will apply regardless of which contract selection you make, whereas T-Mobile forced users to sign the dotted line on a pricey Complete XL plan. Unfortunately, the lower sticker only applies to the 8GB version -- the 16GB model will remain £329 -- but anyone who sprung for one of the former iterations within the last month will receive an "Ultimate Price Promise" £100 refund voucher. Before you dash out to cash in, it should be noted that the deal is set to expire come June -- and we certainly don't have to remind you what that could mean.

Update: O2 just made it official.

[Via Mobile Today, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Discontented iPhone owner sues AT&T, Apple and Steve Jobs

Rather than simply suing Apple, Steve Jobs or AT&T individually, Dongmei Li decided to throw all three under the bus. The suit, which was reportedly filed this week in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, accused the trio of "price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, deceptive actions and other wrongdoings for their role in the September 5th price drop on the iPhone." As you'd expect, Li was one of the folks who waited hours on end to be one of the first iPhone owners, and apparently feels quite slighted by the slashing. Purportedly, the plaintiff is hoping to secure "compensatory damages in the amount of $1 million" in addition to other punitive damages, and if you're up for a good laugh, hit the read link to browse through quite a few (more) comical gripes.

[Thanks, Mark]

iPhone price drop leads to sales boost


Shocking, we know. As if the price drops on the PlayStation 3 weren't evidence enough that we all like our gizmos a bit cheaper, a new report from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster claims that iPhone sales skyrocketed shortly after the (hotly contested) price drops. According to his math, Apple needed to sell some 136,000 iPhones between September 5th (the day of the cuts) and September 9th (the day Apple claimed to have sold one million of its mobiles), which meant that 27,000 iPhones per day were getting unboxed in the five-day period. Comparatively, Munster approximated that Cupertino was unloading around 9,000 iPhones per day prior to the price cuts. 'Course, even Gene doubts that the recent sales surge will be able to hold steady, but we'd say the slashings have already had their desired effect.

[Via DailyTech]

Apple cuts 8GB iPhone price to $399


With the new heat the iPhone will be getting from the iPod Touch, Apple decided to lower the barrier of entry to a much more palatable $399, and that's for the 8GB model, which just yesterday was rocking at $599 pricepoint. It also looks like Apple is doing away with the 4GB version, which was seriously lagging behind its big brother in sales, but there's no official word yet.

Competitors pricing not caving to iPhone emergence


Considering that Verizon went way out of its way to get noticed on iDay, it follows logic to think that it, along with a handful of other rivals, would at least consider slashing prices temporarily in order to redirect attention from the oft-hyped iPhone. Interestingly, none of that actually proved true, as Verizon went so far as to raise the prices of a number of handsets, while neither T-Mobile nor Sprint introduced any huge discounts in order to garner attention. Reportedly, AT&T was the carrier that implemented the most price cuts, as the Pearl, KRZR, and N75 all saw lower prices surrounding the iPhone launch. Of course, it could be that competing carriers simply succumbed to the fact that those eying an iPhone weren't likely to be tempted by anything else, and for all intensive purposes, they'd be absolutely correct.




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