By 
When leaks first suggested the Samsung Droid Charge would have a price point of $299.99 on a two-year contract, many scratched their heads and wondered how Verizon thought they could get away with it. Was the pricing not including some sort of rebate to be applied at the time of purchase? According to new pricing information gathered at Walmart, there was no need for confusion. $298.88 is the price Verizon is asking when the phone is picked up on a two-year contract.
Without a contract? A whopping $700. All for a phone that doesn’t do much to best the first 4G LTE phone from Verizon, the HTC Thunderbolt, in terms of specs. Perhaps its a surcharge for the Droid branding.
[via DroidLife]
One would be very stupid to unload that much $$$ for a Samsung. This is all about comsumers’ stupidity.
The only possible explanation I can think of is that they think people will see the Super amoled+ screen and not be able to resist. Or it actually has a 720p screen, a quad core cpu, a GPU as fast as desktop video card and 15 hours of battery life when playing video :)
The one thing that looks fishy is that they actually list the one year agreement price and it is the same as the no contract price.
That is weird about the 1 year price. And I thought Verizon axed it’s one year plans.
Then doesn’t that make sense? One year is basically the same as no contract.
It’s probably just a hold over from the documentation system, and the full price listed there is just an indicator that there is no 1-year option. They could leave it blank, but let me tell you that some sales person would screw that up and somebody would end up with no contract and some middling price that Walmart gets screwed on. This way it’s clear to the sales people.
No Super AMOLED+?
Ridonkulous.
That thing better build me an island then turn into a plane and fly me there.
Let’s not get carried away. Maybe it could just come with an island of your choice and free airfare to get you there.
Or the assumed consumer’s stupidity on the part of the carrier and manufacturer.
Maybe they should have called it the Overcharge :) (stolen from the Droid life comments)
They are crazy!
What’s the difference between 1 year service agreement and 1 year upgrade?
Wow, verizon is doing such a great job with this Droid Charge great price sooner or later you just might price yourself out of the industry which would be great. What real world FOOL will buy this device???
As I learned about in my marketing class, the people who will get this device are the innovators and early adopters who don’t care about the price. Lots of people thought $700, almost $800 for the Xoom was overpriced when compared with the iPad, yet Motorola’s sold over 100,000 devices. Think for once in your life.
Why would you have to take a marketing class to “learn” that notion? Try a real major, e.g. mathematics, engineering, physical sciences, etc.
Speaking as a person with advanced degrees in exactly the fields you mentioned, I wouldn’t put engineering before physics, but I get your point :)
For your information, I’m not really trying to major in anything at this point. Just trying to get a general degree then move on to the military. Besides, it seemed like an interesting course to to take.
Business IS a real major. Otherwise it wouldn’t be taught at practically every major college. Please don’t jump to conclusions you can in no way infer.
Yes because if those were the only degrees offered the world would be a much better place /sarcasm. Don’t act like an elitist because your interests trend closer to the ideals currently held in high regard. The social sciences and the humanities are the reason that your “real” majors serve any purpose what so ever.
Who will buy it? No one. Mainly because there is no way they are going to actually charge $700. The Thunderbolt was reported as being $700 pre-launch. The actual retail price?(wow, I just sounded like Bob Barker) – $600 – the same price point as pretty much every other high-end Android phone VZW carried. Furthermore, no one is going to spend $700 on what is basically an ugly Thunderbolt. If, by some massive brain-fart VZW /Samsung tries to sell it at $700 off-contract they aren’t going to be moving very many. Not at all, unless this thing has some insane technology that they aren’t telling us about – which I highly doubt.
I don’t disagree with most of what you wrote, but there’s always bound to be at least one person who will buy anything, no matter how wacky it is or how high the price. I’m not saying it’s gonna be a big hit or anything, certainly not at that price, but there will be always be someone…
Absolutely! Even at $1000, they would still sell a few because there are quite a few people with more money than brains. The “$1000?! That thing must be AWESOME!” mentality. Dyson managed to sell more than a few air multipliers at $300-$500+ a unit, although they are really nothing more than bladeless fans. You could buy a nice air conditioner for that amount, and there are people who, until they watched the commercials, NEVER thought a fan was annoying or “unsettling”. White purchases such as that really rely on marketing. Yes, the tech used in the air-multipliers is definitely nifty, but from a practical standpoint -it’s still a fan- it’s just quieter and bladeless from a practical standpoint. But when it’s something new (and especially expensive) some people will buy it just so they can say they have one.
Along those lines, aside from what I’ve read online in blogs, rumors, etc. I have heard absolutely nothing about this phone. The VZW site shows nothing. I tried searching “Droid Charge” and “Droid Stealth” within VZW’s site, and there is nothing, zero, zilch. The Thunderbolt was heavily advertised. The Droid X had a fairly heavy ad campaign. The original Droid’s massive ad campaign doesn’t really even need mentioning – love or hate VZW and Motorola, that phone coupled with that massive storm of an ad campaign took Android from some obscure OS to mainstream in short order. I think the Droid Charge is going to be the Droid 2 of the early LTE phones – very little advertising, etc,. Most of the people at the local Verizon stores have never even heard of it, and if it really and truly does end up costing $700 while the TBolt is $570, they will only be selling them to the air multiplier crowd.
For the record, I wasn’t making fun of, or belittling majors outside of mathematics, physics, and engineering. I was only poking fun at Aaron for putting engineering ahead of physics.
Also, is it just me, or is the Droid Charge second in hideousness only to the Evo3D?
Wow. Someone who is actually a conversationalist :) (Too bad your post will be the last to show a “reply” button, I think). I myself am on Sprint, and don’t really delve too deep into the other carriers. I read just enough about them to get a gist of what’s going on. And although I know its grey area, I initially posted here to troll on Richard (yarrellray) the troll.
But I completely agree with youre entire first paragraph. The Droid name carries its own weight. Most people who don’t own Android phones identify the OS as “Droid”. As in “Hey is that a Droid phone?” Came across this myself today.
No harm done on the majors bit. I myself have no idea what direction I want to take even though its basically my last semester at the community college I attend.
As for the E3D/Charge thing, in briefly looking at a picture of the Charge, I kinda like it. I probably wouldn’t get it (price and all aside) but the look does appeal to me. On the other hand, I don’t like the almost complete rectangle that is the E3D. I think I would want some curve or “fluidness” in my next phone. I also don’t think I would get it because of the 3D stuff. Just not my cup of tea.
i have call this ad fake. nothing of it makes sense at all
Can you say trying too hard to sell the iPhone 4. Welcome to the world of att. Now you Verizon folks will know what it was like for us when att had exclusive rights to the iPhone.
The only difference is Verizon will have plenty of android phones but no one will be able to afford them and will be forced to buy the iPhone or change carrier’s.
Just thinking out loud.
Because the iphone is affordable??????? Bwahahaha, right. I think they’re just making sure not to undercut the iphone to give it a chance to sell better. Sad state of affairs.
The $700 charge is to scare/force you into a 2yr contract
And to rape you if your phone gets lost/stolen/broken before you are upgrade eligible.
700 for 1 year upgrade???
Probably because there’s no such thing as a 1 year upgrade anymore. The only way to do “1 year” would be to buy the phone outright and go month to month.
Ignorant people who don’t understand specs thought process:
1. It’s a DROID! I know that brand!
2. It’s expensive so it must be the best!
3. I’m going to buy one!
4. You’re an idiot.
No. The people that think like that are idiots. He is just pointing out the thought process of certain people.
Thank you
You’re reading comprehension skills are abysmal at best.
“You are reading comprehension skills are abysmal at best. ”
Maybe you could help him with reading and maybe he could help you with grammar. I’m not a grammar police by any means but its always hilarious when someone calls someone out for being an idiot only to make a stupid mistake in their own “call out”.
Cenarl…
Since you went there…
1) “But its always…”
its is possessive, like “its car,” or “its shell.”
it’s = it has, or it is, like “it is always hilarious”
2) According to rules of English grammar, quotes surround the punctuation. “Call out.” would be the correct way to write that section of your statement.
So doesn’t that make you the idiot who calls someone out and screws it up?
Hmm, maybe you should join this guys reading class, since I clearly said I’m not the grammar police. I could care less if people make mistakes because I make them too. I’m more of a douche-bag police. If your going to call someone out you best be on point yourself is the only thing I’m trying to say.
My sirens seem to be going off again.
Since your teaching lessons and trying to be oh so proper, you may want to clean up your ellipses.
Maybe this is a Samsung thing. The Epic was $250 on Sprint, despite not being much better (or better at all) than the Evo. I think Samsung looked at the $200 phones, and thought “well, this has more stuff, so we’ll charge more.”
But Verizon must be the worst carrier to try to sell a $300 phone for. Out of all the carriers, I’d say Verizon has the best lineup of phones (I’m on Sprint), so the Charge has the most competition.
I’m curious to know how much profit the carrier makes off the average wireless account per month.
This is exactly why I love Sprint, and this is also why I’m totally against the AT&T T-mobile merger.
Yeah seriously? Verizon is retarded.
I would die first then pay 700 dollars for a SAMSUNG phone. Wow..
RIP OFF..
Wonder how is that Xoom thing working form them:-)
…once again imust say…is the phone out complainers? Why rip it apart when its not even out yet? …As always its better to know than to speak as though you know …y0.
There was this thing called democracy, or consumer power, that we once had. Then one day people began to think “wait til it comes out” and “complain about things later”. Once the apathy became rampant, companies discovered they can do anything they want, and never have to worry about what the population thinks of it.
@27 Kam, agreed, fake
yea but you get that nifty discount buying it from Wal-mart…
Charge is the right name for this phone.
Somebody will buy it. Like an idiosa. LoL!!
I remember when I went on eBay to see how much the iPhone 4 was bidding for. It was at $1200 and still rising. I’m like really!? Ima stick with the G2 kuz it kan be rooted like almost every other Android phone. LoL!!
this pricing is pretty hilarious, I wonder what astronomical figure the SII will cost. The walmart pricing kinda scares me though…usually nearly everyone sales Verizon phones cheaper then Verizon even if its just by a little bit. Im not even interested in this phone but im anxious so see what amazon, wirefly and others end up pricing it at.
I would love to be a first day buyer but the prices drop by 100+ after a month from online retailers, if consumers could learn an ounce of patience they wouldn’t get stiffed by so much. It would just take a few phone launches with people saying “get real”, and then they wouldn’t gouge so much.
You couldn’t pay me enough to buy a phone full price for $700. Hell you couldn’t get me to pay $298.00 with a contract.
Not me. You could actually pay me $750 to buy that phone at full price. :)
Droid Fail!
Cool1
Single core & they want $700?? Might as well buy the Xoom! Trying hard to push people to the iPhone. Please, another reason to steer clear of Verizon!