Nokia Lumia 900 SA launch date announced

Take it from a Nokia fan... it is inappropriately priced. Especially because of the fact that the SIII is now widely available in SA.

It would have been the right price (perhaps) if we had LTE in SA. And even then, it cannot be priced in the same bracket as the SIII. I understand the SIII has LTE too.

I hear people are getting it in the US for US$100. I am not sure how it works there but this pricing surely looks out of touch with its pricing elsewhere.

Here is a suggestion: Let the 900 start at R269/mth (with the phone for free), the 800 at R199/mth, the 710 (R149/mth), 610 (R135/mth) and the Ashas can start from R109/mth and lower. That would be more appealing. Or the R369/mth should be TopUp. Otherwise, the people selling it are just not being serious.

And oh, the Batman addition can then be R279/mth.
 
Last edited:
As much as I am a Nokia fanboy I won't pay R 369 for that phone. Let's leave the S3 out for now. Take HTC One X @ R 349 pm.

The only things the nokia trumps the htc on is perhaps the actual device construction and local support. Now the htc first and foremost...display! That should be enough to win. And then battery life I believe. Even if we assume the OS part is equal, etc.

I am really not sure who does the economics for MTN and how bloody blind Nokia South Africa is. I'd go as far as saying Nokia South Africa does not understand the vision of Nokia. This is really not how you get market share.

Case in point, this phone was introduced at $50 on contract in USA where normal high end are introduced at $150-$200 simply to get market share. Somehow we are ass****s here that can't do with a discount?
 
eshwar said:
As much as I am a Nokia fanboy I won't pay R 369 for that phone. Let's leave the S3 out for now. Take HTC One X @ R 349 pm.

The only things the nokia trumps the htc on is perhaps the actual device construction and local support. Now the htc first and foremost...display! That should be enough to win. And then battery life I believe. Even if we assume the OS part is equal, etc.

I am really not sure who does the economics for MTN and how bloody blind Nokia South Africa is. I'd go as far as saying Nokia South Africa does not understand the vision of Nokia. This is really not how you get market share.

Case in point, this phone was introduced at $50 on contract in USA where normal high end are introduced at $150-$200 simply to get market share. Somehow we are ass****s here that can't do with a discount?
Click to expand...

I'm leaning towards the service providers ripping us off.

This is why Vodacom doesn't want to sell it. Nokia said it's a cheap (hardware) phone and now Vodacom can't rip people off...

MTN just said "screwed it, we'll rip them off anyways"
 
Can't believe SA's pricing compared to overseas.
All the local WP7's are overpriced and it gives a really bad impression.
 
roguemat said:
Can't believe SA's pricing compared to overseas.
All the local WP7's are overpriced and it gives a really bad impression.
Click to expand...

I think the service providers wants to cash in on the perception that anything Nokia is still the best.

There's still a lot of people in South Africa (believe it or not!) who will only buy a Nokia, even if it's complete crap, like the N97.
 
Its our own fault actually. We KNOW that we getting shafted, but everyone lots of people still get the phone.
 
Since the phone launched at the event doesn't do it for anyone Jan could have (at least) told us more about the eats and the ladies' dresses!
 
I dont think any phone (inc S3) supports LTE in south africa.

AFAIK, LTE must be supported with a SoC radio.

The Lumia 900 does support LTE, but I think even with LTE stations in South Africa i'm pretty sure it still wont work because of the spectrum.

The Galaxy S3 has a Exynos 4212 Quad. (International Version, HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps only)
US version will have a Qualcomm S4 dual core processor (supports LTE),.
 
McCrazieGoalz said:
Take it from a Nokia fan... it is inappropriately priced. Especially because of the fact that the SIII is now widely available in SA.

It would have been the right price (perhaps) if we had LTE in SA. And even then, it cannot be priced in the same bracket as the SIII. I understand the SIII has LTE too.

I hear people are getting it in the US for US$100. I am not sure how it works there but this pricing surely looks out of touch with its pricing elsewhere.

Here is a suggestion: Let the 900 start at R269/mth (with the phone for free), the 800 at R199/mth, the 710 (R149/mth), 610 (R135/mth) and the Ashas can start from R109/mth and lower. That would be more appealing. Or the R369/mth should be TopUp. Otherwise, the people selling it are just not being serious.

And oh, the Batman addition can then be R279/mth.
Click to expand...

Isn't the $100 price tag in the US merely the pay-in on a 24 month contract?
 
scuzzy said:
Isn't the $100 price tag in the US merely the pay-in on a 24 month contract?
Click to expand...

I am not sure how it actually works. But, yes. I think it is a pay in. Nevertheless, the point I am making is that the Lumia's are being sold at one of the cheapest prices for phones in their bracket elsewhere.

As one member said, Nokia and distributors in SA appear not to understand what Nokia's strategy is - or what they (local distributors) should be doing to drive Nokia sales. Perhaps they still want to capitalize on the fact that the South African market's perception appear to lag behind those of developed nations, i.e Nokia still seems to have considerable clout.

By doing that I think they are taking a risk and undermining local people's awareness of whats happening in the mobile industry. They are also undemining people's perceptions of what quality is. Samsung SIII is way, way...way better than the Lumia 900.

The Lumia should not be priced in the same bracket as the SIII.
 
Last edited:
McCrazieGoalz said:
Take it from a Nokia fan... it is inappropriately priced. Especially because of the fact that the SIII is now widely available in SA.

It would have been the right price (perhaps) if we had LTE in SA. And even then, it cannot be priced in the same bracket as the SIII. I understand the SIII has LTE too.

I hear people are getting it in the US for US$100. I am not sure how it works there but this pricing surely looks out of touch with its pricing elsewhere.

Here is a suggestion: Let the 900 start at R269/mth (with the phone for free), the 800 at R199/mth, the 710 (R149/mth), 610 (R135/mth) and the Ashas can start from R109/mth and lower. That would be more appealing. Or the R369/mth should be TopUp. Otherwise, the people selling it are just not being serious.

And oh, the Batman addition can then be R279/mth.
Click to expand...

Considering the current exchange rate are we not paying cheaper?
 
Kgabogk said:
Considering the current exchange rate are we not paying cheaper?
Click to expand...

Without going into the details about how much people are paying for it elsewhere (which I think is still much less than R369/mth over 24 months) the point is, they are not making pricing decisions that are in line with Nokia's aspirations - to regain traction in the mobile market.

They should be applying the same principle that they applied in the US here - make the phone more accessible price wise. Don't make it go toe-to-toe on price with the likes of the SIII. Thats just silly.
 
Last edited:
McCrazieGoalz, I am 100% in agreement with your above post. I've been tweeting at NokiaRSA, nokia, MTN South Africa, and Gerard Brandjes all morning, saying the exact same thing. I really want Nokia and Windows Phone to do well, but priced higher than an HTC One X? And so close to the S3? Makes no sense. They have to adjust the price before it is in shops on the 28th or they will lose customers
 
McCrazieGoalz said:
They should be applying the same principle that they applied in the US here - make the phone more accessible price wise. Don't make it go toe-to-toe on price with the likes of the SIII. Thats just silly.
Click to expand...

Yeah, how ridiculous!
My contract ends next month and I was seriously thinking about getting the 900, but with these prices I'd be a complete idiot if I didn't rather go for the S3.... :mad:
On specs sheets alone this is a complete ripoff.
 
Last edited:
edrichcyster said:
McCrazieGoalz, I am 100% in agreement with your above post. I've been tweeting at NokiaRSA, nokia, MTN South Africa, and Gerard Brandjes all morning, saying the exact same thing. I really want Nokia and Windows Phone to do well, but priced higher than an HTC One X? And so close to the S3? Makes no sense. They have to adjust the price before it is in shops on the 28th or they will lose customers
Click to expand...

I have been doing the same. But we both know MTN doesn't quite respond in twitter. I believe they have the wrong perception of the market. Personally I'd buy the Lumia 900 just not at that price.

RaptorSA said:
Yeah, how ridiculous!
My contract ends next month and I was seriously thinking about getting the 900, but with these prices I'd be a complete idiot if I didn't rather go for the S3.... :mad:
On specs sheets alone this is a complete ripoff.
Click to expand...

Yup you'd be a complete idiot! And a bigger one if the HTC One X was an option to you.

ITS SO SO SO SAD what these operators do. And what their market perceptions are. Then they'd pay millions to consulting companies to solve their problems. And those consultants job is to take a look at a market logically and reasonably and suggest answers. Any reasonable one would suggest what we tell them for free on this forum. I cannot understand the stupidity.

Even Vodacom makes more sense on their Lumia position. Almost like they kinda know we are not too hyped up about it.

Somebody mentioned about LTE: yeah if we had it, I am not too sure the 900 would have arrived with the correct frequency bands. Case in point is the iPad 4G. It came through anyway although that's a side effect of getting the 3G model.
 
Well just announcend no upgrade path for the new Nokia Lumia 900 to WP8 Apollo, nice way to screw your customers. What the point of buying this "legacy" phone now.
 
Yea, this phone is dead now. Absolutely no point in getting this, might as well wait for WP8.

I suppose there might be some specials on this soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter