14 DAY TRIAL // The first important handset vendors that announced Windows Phone 8 devices, Nokia, Samsung and HTC are about to launch their smartphones next month.
Although there are rumors claiming Nokia will kick off Lumia 920/820 sales in late October, it’s less likely that these smartphones will be available globally before the end of the month.
We’ve seen numerous reports on Nokia and HTC pricing options for their WP8-powered devices coming from various retailers, but these have yet to be confirmed with the manufacturers.
For the time being, Nokia seems to have priced its Lumia 920 highest, but that’s understandable if we take into consideration this is the most advanced smartphone powered by Windows Phone 8 to date.
Even though most Windows Phone 8 devices will go on sale in early November, we expect Nokia to be the first to launch its Lumia smartphones, followed by HTC and then Samsung.
So far, we’ve been able to determine that Nokia Lumia 920 will be priced around $800 USD, perhaps a bit more in Europe due to conversion rate. The Lumia 820 will be less expensive at around $600 USD or 400 – 500 EUR.
However, HTC’s WP8-based devices seem to be priced much lower than Nokia’s though they are less-featured as well. Basically, it’s not the platform that you pay for but the hardware and technologies embedded.
This is one of the reasons HTC and Samsung are trying to counter the hype around Nokia’s Lumia smartphones by applying massive price cuts on their own devices.
In this regard, Digitimes reports HTC plans to release the HTC 8X for only $500-$600 USD outright, while the 8S will be price lower than that.
On the other hand, Samsung ATIV S will also be launched on the market in late November for around $600-$800 USD off-contract.
Digitimes’ sources also claim that the recently leaked Huawei Ascend W1 will be the cheapest Windows Phone 8 handset available on the market at around $300-$350 USD.