I was a Nokia fan boy for a very long time but their disregard to improving usability especially that of touch devices forced me to shift my foot. The company had an undisputed reputation to provide good quality hardware at compelling prices and that too is now biting the dust.
When I heard about the price cuts in Europe, I checked their Indian website for any information on lowering prices in India. But the prices were still the same. To be honest, I believed a price reduction is coming to Indian market also. So I took a screen shot of the prices available at that time so that I can calculate the cut they are doing to stay up in the battle.
The screen shot included prices of the top level( I mean phones that are displayed in the top row - not the 'best in category' thing) phones ie, C7, C6-01, C6 and C5-03 ( Nokia phone that made me interested in this was C7).
The Prices were as follows
C7 - 17,734 ($ 399)
C6-01 - 14,299 ($ 322)
C6 - 12,499 ($ 282)
C5-03 - 8,899 ($ 200)
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| Nokia mobile price on 8th July 2011 |
When I checked back today, to my surprise the prices were higher than the previous ones. The following are the increased values.
C7 - 18,399 ($ 414)
C6-01 - 14,979 ($ 338)
C6 - 13,089 ($ 295)
C5-03 - 9,319 ($ 210)
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| Nokia mobile price on 18th July 2011 |
Check the latest prices here
Nokia increased the prices from 3.5% to 5% for their phones. Too bad I didn't have a note on any other item in their inventory.
Is this price hike in view of the new survey result?
On July 11 The Mobile Indian released a survey on the most searched mobile phones by Indian customers. The survey was based on the searching preference of 670,000 users of 'The Mobile Indian' website in June. Nokia, to the surprise of many, topped the list by snatching 4 out of the top 5 including the top 3. In the top 25 list Nokia got 12 admissions.
The goal of the survey as they say was "to give marketers a monthly insight into changing consumer preferences". Just 1 week after the survey result came out, Nokia was found to have increased the prices ( 'Found to have' - because I do not know when exactly the change was made).
Three of the above mentioned handsets are in the top 25 list with the exception of C6-01. And all got a price hike.
Was that just a coincidence ? to be frank, I don't know. You decide.
nokia is not to be blamed here,indian govt. has increased the excise duty on imported mobile phones.
ReplyDeleteIndia Govt increased the excise duty for handsets I agree. But that was in March and the increase in the duty came to effect from April 1st 2011. Nokia and all other companies except GFive increased price at that time.
ReplyDeleteThe price hike mentioned in my post happened between july 8 and july 20. And to my knowledge no increase in any duties came to effect around that period. So I don't think it is excise duty this time.
LOOT Macha Rakhi hai
ReplyDelete