HTC has explained the pricing disparity that will see its new smartphone, the HTC One A9, costing far less in the US than the UK.
We were cautiously optimistic about the HTC One A9 when we went hands-on with it last week. Here is a classy mid-range phone that apes the iPhone 6S design extremely faithfully. Perhaps too faithfully.
Familiar looks aside, our biggest concern with the HTC One A9 was its price. In order to compete, it would need to be priced competitively – and in the UK, that simply didn’t look like being the case.
While the HTC One A9 costs just $399.99 in the US, it will cost £429.99 here in the UK. That works out to around $660, which is a massive difference.
HTC has now provided the following statement to explain this difference:
“The cost of the HTC One A9 is the same worldwide to all distributors and operator partners. For end consumers, HTC’s sales regions are given the freedom to set prices and promotions as they see fit for the local market needs. The One A9 price in the US is a very limited-time promotional offer for that region’s online store, as well as select HTC-only franchise stores. The offer is a special promotional pre-sale and is expected to conclude once the One A9 is available on-shelf at major retail and distributor partners.
After the promotional pre-sale offer ends, the new price in the US at htc.com will be $499.99 beginning 12:01am on 11/7.”
Related: HTC One M10 release date
In other words, the HTC One A9’s US pricing is merely a promotional launch deal, and one that will end in less than two weeks.
Of course, there will still be a $160 price difference between the US and UK model after the adjustment. Despite the extra cost, we’ll also be getting an inferior version of the A9 – one with 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM; the US model has 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM.
Next, take a look at our smartphone buyers guide video:
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
