Posted on 07/13/2011 9:18:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Look down a list of Windows Phone 7 smartphones being offered without a contract and you’ll notice the price hovers around the $300-$400. There are some $200 models, but they are few and far between and make a few feature compromises to achieve the lower price point.
The price of buying a smartphone outright is clearly high, but Microsoft has stated that is about to change, and come 2012 you will be able to pick up a Windows Phone 7 smartphone for around $100.
That revelation was announced to a crowd of people attending the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 by Andy Lees, president of the Windows Phone Division. He explained the price drop was down to the ability to now put everything you need to run a system on a single chip. This so-called system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution significantly lowers prices regardless of the platform and operating system you intend to run. Not only will it mean cheaper smartphone components, but also Windows 8 PCs with motherboards smller than the mini-ITX form factor.
The advantage for Microsoft in the smartphone category is that it can get more Windows Phone 7 handsets being offered for free with a contract at all the major networks. Alternatively, buying an unlocked handset without a contract becomes a lot cheaper. In both cases the Windows mobile platform has less barriers to entry and could significantly increase sales.
A question mark remains on whether this will signal the end of $400 high-end smartphones. It’s doubtful they will disappear as the internals of the phone are only part of the cost. You’ve still got the large touchscreen, casing, and cameras to consider.
The point Lees also tried to make was not just that Windows smartphones will be cheaper, but tablets, PCs, and other consumer electronics devices are also set to fall in price. Microsoft view that as advantageous as it will be present in all those markets come 2012 with Windows 8, meaning one software ecosystem across all your devices.
That’s a view surely shared by Apple and Google with iOS and Android gradually expanding the number of devices they run on too.
Sounds like a desperation play — Android and (to a lesser extent) Apple is eating MS’s lunch in the mobile market.
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