HTC One A9 Price Goes Up: Not Such a Great Deal Anymore?
After HTC unveiled the HTC One A9 last week at a great cost, the company has now raised the price, possibly compromising the deal many excited customers expected.
The One A9 is the first non-Nexus Android device to run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. But in a surprising turn of events, the company has raised the device's price during the pre-order period.
While the phone was a great deal at the initial $400 price tag for pre-orders, that price turned out to be a "special promotional" offer. According to SlashGear, which received official confirmation from HTC, that price goes up $100 come Nov. 7.
The company explained the switch in a statement:
"The cost of the HTC One A9 is the same worldwide to all distributors and operator partners. For end consumers, HTC's sales regions are given the freedom to set prices and promotions as they see fit for local market needs. The One A9 price in the US is a very limited-time promotional offer for that region's online store, as well as select HTC-only franchise stores. The offer is a special promotional pre-sale and is expected to conclude once the One A9 is available on-shelf at major retail and distributor partners.
After the promotional pre-sale offer ends, the new price in the US at htc.com will be $499.99 beginning 12:01am on 11/7."
As Latin Post previously reported, the mid-tier device initially looked like a great deal. It packed a 5-inch 1080p full HD AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 4, a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 system on a chip, 4G LTE connectivity, a 13-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization, a 4-megapixel "UltraPixel" selfie shooter -- which performs well in low light environments -- and, of course, Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
It also features an attractive, thin, iPhone-like aluminum unibody design, and includes a microSD card slot for extra storage expansion. HTC said users could root the device and unlock the bootloader without voiding the device's warranty, which, itself, was upgraded with something HTC calls "Uh Oh" protection.
The new "Uh Oh" warranty means users can get a free replacement device up to a year after purchase if they cracked the screen, caused water damage, switched to an incompatible carrier, or accidentally damaged the phone in any way, all with "no questions asked."
The disappointing markup switch-up may ensure the HTC One A9 will never attain the popularity the company hoped and needed for it.
Do you think the HTC One A9 is worth $500 for the base model? Or is this yet another misstep for the troubled Taiwanese device maker? Let us know in the comments?
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