Nokia N97 price skyrockets
Smartphone's launch date put back too
Nokia’s N97 smartphone will arrive later than previously thought - and cost a fair chunk more, according to one retailer’s website.
Play.com's N97 price and shipping date as of January (left) and its recently updated details (right)
Register Hardware reported in January that Play.com had stated on its website that the N97 – which has a 3.5in, 16:9 widescreen touch-sensitive display and a slide-out Qwerty keyboard underneath – would be released on 31 March for the princely SIM-free of sum £480 ($675/€535).
But the retailer’s now put its shipping date for the phone back until 23 June, while simultaneously upping the price to a whopping £650 ($914/€724).
Heavyweight online handset retailer Expansys mirrors Play.com’s N97 details, naming the same shipment date as Play. Expansys plans to ask £690 ($971/€769) for the phone.
Expansys wants slightly more than Play.com for the N97
However, Nokia devotees over at website NokNok have claimed a “Nokia contact” recently labelled the prices as simply “outrageous”. Whether this means the phone’s SIM-free price will be reduced in the coming weeks remains to be seen.
But what is certain is that the N97 is a feature-packed phone, with on-screen widgets, HSDPA 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, Assisted GPS and Flash support. It also has a 5Mp camera and 32GB of on-board memory. ®
COMMENTS
Hopefully...
By then O2 will have stopped trying to protect the Iphone from being overtaken by 2007/2008/2009 specced devices that also come with copy and paste, and will actually stock it.
Rather than what they did with the N96 that they held back for so long for "network isssues" -read "contract with apple"
Price drop already...
Play.com has already dropped the price quoted in this article by £50. Go figure.
Personally I'm looking forward to this phone being released. I like Nokia phones and have always got on with their interface. I've tried most other brands but always end up going back to Nokia. This phone will offer me the larger screen and QWERTY keyboard that I miss in my N95-8GB. The touch screen will be nice but I can't say I miss not having it currently.
Full price
Paying full price really depends what you spend on calls etc. If you are a heavy user then subsidised contracts can be justified. However a lot of people don't consider just what they are paying in total for their cheap phone with a new contract.
New contracts are massively more expensive than they used to be. I remained on my old contract with is about £12 a month now and just buy SIM free phones instead. The total price I pay over a couple of years is the same as if I was on a £40 contract and got the phone "free" or cheap, but because I make hardly any calls, just receive them mostly and use the Internet capabilities via WiFi now, it makes more sense. Especially as the phones come unlocked and unbranded (not counting the iPhone of course).
However £600+ for a top end Nokia is still way OTT. I'd normally be looking at the £300 mark for a new sim free smartphone phone.
If that is the real retail price, you can guarantee that it will be a fraction of that price within a year. Maybe that's what they realise, i.e. rapid depreciation.
Well At Least You're Not In Ireland...
Play.com don't reflect the current pound/euro exchange rate so the phone is likely to cost $40 more if you pay in euros for delivery to Ireland. Expansys here in Ireland are even worse - currently quoting €844.99 for the N97 which works out at £757!
I can't see Nokia intervening here - they never have before and this isn't the first model on which outrageous markups have been taken.
Nokia have to be realistic...
Otherwise people are more likely to go for a Samsung Omnia HD, which is similar, and in some ways better, than the N97.
I think a majority of people who want a high-end phone would limit what they buy to what is offered relatively cheaply by their network. I know of only 1 person who has bought a full price smartphone. If Nokia push the price up too much, they'll lose sales.
