Sprint follows T-Mobile's lead, wants $350 for HTC Touch Pro2
By Darren Murph 
posted Aug 31st 2009 2:47PM
posted Aug 31st 2009 2:47PM
posted Aug 31st 2009 2:47PM
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
$350 AFTER mail in rebate of $100? So basically $450. Ridiculous.
What a great reason to jump ships to T-mobile.
Well i don't see how you benefit from this since tmob has it at the same price and 20 times less the 3g coverage with them and more expensive plans with data good luck on your switch.
I already have T-mobile myself.
I'm just saying if I was a Sprint customer, living in a big city(ie: Minneapolis), I would much rather switch to T mobile, get the phone for $350 with NO mail in rebate to wait 4-6 weeks for, and enjoy my full 3g coverage in my area. And plus probably save a lot of money doing so.
Both companies are simply insane for the pricing the phones the way they have, however if I am reading this right, Sprint's $350 price comes with just a 1 year contract requirement as opposed to T-Mo's 2 year contract extension.
iPhone??? :)
Looks nice, but after having dozens of WM phones in the past, I have become fed up with the little quirks and tweaks needed to make the OS run snappy that I've jumped ship to the Palm Pre. I will never go back to Windows Mobile.
Sort of agree... it's a great looking phone, but the OS is a complete turn off.
But, for me, it's not that I'd want the Pre's OS on it. I'd want Android on it (or Maemo 5 for that matter).
I called it for $399 so $350 is a discount! People, this is a world-phone with (non-US) GSM radio, a larger screen with higher resolution than the iPn and a far more capable OS. So, yeh, $350. But If you're an upgrade eligible Sprint customer you'll get another $150 off. And that's not a mail-in rebate, it's immediate, if you purchase at (Radio) Shack. So that brings it to $200 for alot of people interested in this phone.
Having said all that, my advice again is to wait a few months till it ships natively with WM6.5 and has had an engineering update or two applied because it's bound to have technical problems right out the gate on 9/8. Heck, they might even knock another $50 off for the holidays.
I believe that's incorrect... The $150 off for upgrade eligible sprint users is in place of the new contract subsidy. If you bought the phone off completely off contract it would be $600.
It seems outrageous yes, but this was the price of the Touch pro on Verizon 8 months ago.
Yes, and the original iPhone was $600 on a contract. THAT didn't last long, did it? Now you can get the same capable phone for $100. So the question is, why isn't this cheaper yet? Why HTC, why?
For one thing, getting the TP2 doesn't mean you have to switch to a carrier you don't want. Exclusivity agreements make it possible to sell the handset for less because they add value to the carrier ('if you want this phone, you can only get it here'). Releasing a phone to every carrier adds value for the customer ('if you want this phone, you can use it any-fraking-where you want to').
A reason it wouldn't be cheaper "yet" might have to do with it having not been released yet. And the underlying hardware cost probably has gotten cheaper, considering the no-commitment TMo price is $500-500 compared to the unlocked int'l version's $700-750 at launch. Yes TMo buys in bulk and they subsidize a little just for the carrier lock, but that's still not a bad price decrease considering the int'l unlocked version appeared in May and the first US version showed up a couple of weeks ago.
I think Palm will benefit from this price! I've seen the Pre advertised for $99 after 2 year contract.
Where?
It will be $350 after all rebates. The rull retail will be much higher. You have to be eligible to upgrade to get the $350 price.
I want it. I need it.
Don't bother going to a Sprint store...pick it up at Best Buy. BB gives you the post-rebate price out the door.
Is Best Buy getting this? if so When?
yes, this is a little steep if you ask me! I really hope that with that high of a price, the device is worth it and don't have all the things wrong like the original TP.
well it is a smartphone so i'm going to go ahead and give you a no on that one. i love smartphones but for the price we pay for them, the fact that they barely actually work when they are released is terrible. and they release new ones so often that by the time they get the old one working right, the next one is about to be released with much better stuff.
(this is talking about smartphones in general of course)
T-Mobile's price is still "officially" $350 too, but you can buy it though Amazon for $150. Hopefully Sprint's "official" price is equally make-believe.
Where is push to talk? Obviously Sprint realizes the business opportunity since the Blackberrys support it, but no love for WinMo....
I think you're confusing the Sprint/CDMA side of things with the Nextel/iDen side. They are not compatible with each other, despite being owned by the same company.
The push-to-talk blackberry is on iDen (Nextel). None of the CDMA Blackberrys on Sprint have push to talk.
They only made one Windows Mobile smartphone on Nextel, and it bombed. It is highly unlikely to ever see a new one again.
Yes you are correct on the IDEN half. But Sprint has QCHAT for CDMA PTT. It will be a cold day in hell to see a new PDA with IDEN in it, so our only hope is hoping they commit to PTT so I can dump my nextel only phone and invest in a phone that has everything I need.
you guys need to chill on the windows mobile bashing. i am on telus and this phone has NONE of the previous issues with windows mobile devices. everything is fast and smooth and its actually designed to be finger friendly. when you touch the screen you can sense that you have to use a finger
wow. i was looking forward to this phone when it came to Verizon but i don't know for that price. i really wanted a Pre but after seeing it's pretty much locked down like the iPhone, i'm not so sure anymore. thus my options are mainly Touch Pro 2 or Sholes.
Pre being locked down? I just installed My Tether and put a custom theme on it. I also have about 20 home brewed applications i got out side of the app store....Whatcha talkin bout willis?
I hope it is only a typo, on HTC press release for the Sprint TP2 it has this:
Interface: HTC ExtUSB (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed)
contradicts the pictures that we saw not so long ago!!!
here it is:
http://www.htc.com/us/press.aspx?id=70862&lang=1033
The press release is for the regular Touch Pro, luckily. :) The date on the release was Oct. 24, 2008
oops my bad
check the read link to sprint's press release... it specifically states the 3.5mm jack is there
Give me a break people, this is $50 CHEAPER than the price for the Sprint Mogul at release on a 2 year agreement back in 2007. Look it up.
wow really my contract has been up since june i waited for this phone. Hopefully with some complaing on tuesday i can get the customer rep to bring down the price or else i suck it up and get a whack iphone.
Just being patient and waiting on 7
This should be Win7 capable. It should me the bare minimum requirements.
Not sure about the T-Mobile version as it doesn't have a Windows hard button...it has a Home button.
What I'm gonna do is wait until T-Mobile starts a price war & lower their price. Then I'm gonna complain to Sprint's customer service/retention to see if they can match prices.
Al least Sprint's version looks much better than T-Mobile's.
I'm a T-Mobile customer and I think I'm going to wait a few months. More rounded, properly debugged OS and UI overlay and maybe, just maybe, a better price.
You can get the t-mobile version for $199.99 on a 2-year contract (new customers at least) on wirefly.com
Or $149.99 on Amazon. :-)
At least new customers have it easy.
I'm sick of getting the shaft because I'm in the US. I guarantee that in the UK or Europe this phone is either free or close to free with a shorter commitment and rate plans (that include data) that are lower than minute only plans here.
I understand there's different countries, different regulations, and all that, but that doesn't mean I should act like I'm being done a favor if a phone is "offered" to me at $200-$400 along with another huge fee of about $30 a month EXTRA to use it. I wish people would come together and challenge them on this
Yep, just checked Tmobile UK, all the top phones (some of which we'd salivate for) for free, with 18 month commitment, and plans from 30-50 pounds (do the conversion) that include minutes, texts, AND "unlimited internet"
Even tough its expensive, sprints version should be the only one that can work on ALL 4 major carriers in the US (though if you use att and tmobiles network with this phone i dont believe you'll get the high speed 3g data). Verizon has been known to add Sprint ESN's to their network which is the device electronic serial number (but sprint absolutly refuses to add verizons). To use ATT and TMobile, you would just add the SIM card. What this means is, because its so expensive, might as well and pay up the whole retail price and keep yourself out of contract and demand they unlock the phone from the start. Then you'll at least be in a good postion to ask for some of sprints famous retention prices on services to make up for the cost of the phone (I get unlimited data for $5 a month on my touch diamond).
I have just call Sprint Customer Care and Jill or Gill pick up and i have asked her does the touch pro 2 works for the Sero plan. And she put me on hold for 10 minute and came back saying it is compatiable...so if anyone want to double check what i have called for. Try calling Sprint Customer Service.