Samsung's soon-to-be-released Instinct smartphone, which its U.S. marketer Sprint(S Quote) hopes will be its Apple(AAPL Quote) iPhone killer, will have a new, lower price when it goes on sale this Friday -- a penny less than $130.
(Click here for my video take.) The Instinct, which I reviewed last week, was originally planned to sell in the $250-$300 range. But as soon as Apple announced its $199 price for the high-speed, next-generation iPhone 3G, Sprint let it be known that the Instinct would also sell for $199. But alas, the Instinct is no iPhone. And although it's a nice phone in its own right, it doesn't match up well with the soon-to-be-unleashed iPhone 3G. Sprint understood all too well what that would mean for sales, and today lowered the price to $129.99, with a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year service contract. Sprint needs the Instinct to help bring up sales levels. Sprint was the first to bring the $99 Palm Centro to market. That phone has been very successful for both companies. AT&T(T Quote) and Verizon(VZ Quote) also sell $99 versions of the Centro. The Instinct has now been priced just a few dollars more than the Centro (although that $100 price has always been the price point dividing line for mass market cell phone sales). Sprint has said that it is going to spend more than $100 million to market the new touch-screen device, which is about three times the marketing budget of its biggest phone launch in 2007. A flood of new smartphones is expected in the next few weeks, including Research In Motion's(RIMM Quote) Blackberry Bold; Garmin's(GRMN Quote) nuviphone; what used to be known as Google's(GOOG Quote) gPhone (new smartphones that run on the open-source Android operation system) ; and Sony(SNE Quote)Ericsson's(ERIC Quote) Xperia (a Windows Mobile smartphone) and lots more.- Loading Comments...
- Loading Comments...
Recent Comments
Featured Photo Galleries
-
Apple Job Posting Suggests Video Recording Coming to Future iPad Models
MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors
-
Google launches Nexus One phone support
CNET News
-
Foursquare Signs a Deal With Zagat
New York Times
-
Current MacBook Pro Models Deleted From Best Buy's Inventory System? Updates Imminent?
MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors
-
Book Publishers Beware! At iTunes, Expensive Music Equals Slower Sales.
All Things Digital
-
Google Buzz coming soon for businesses and schools
Google Enterprise Blog
-
Ksplice debuts zero downtime service for Linux
Latest from Computerworld
-
Google Customer Service Number Now Live
TmoNews - Unofficial T-Mobile Blog - News, Videos, Articles and more
-
The Ten Biggest Advertising Publishers On The Web
TechCrunch
-
Google Buzz re-invents Gmail
New: All Things O'Reilly
| Dow Jones | S&P 500 | NASDAQ | 10-Year Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,058.64 | 1,070.52 | 2,150.87 | 36.33 |
Oil *
72.02
|
|
UP
150.25
|
UP
13.78
|
UP
24.82
|
UP
0.41
|
10 Yr
3.63%
SPDR Gold
105.45
|
|
+1.52%
|
+1.30%
|
+1.17%
|
+1.14%
|
Data delayed 20 minutes |
More From TheStreet
Latest HeadlinesBrokerage Partners
Sponsored Links














