Verizon Wireless Touch Pro2 to land September 11th, $199.99
As if an Android handset and a couple of Blackberry handsets weren't enough, Verizon Wireless customers may have yet another handset coming quickly down the pike. A trusted ninja let us know that VZW's Touch Pro2 is slated …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Touch Pro2 has been repriced twice on its way to market this year: HTC put an unlocked retail price of about $880 on it back in April, then the device was slated for a September 8th launch at $349.99. Boy Genius Report now hears Verizon Wireless will land it on September 11th at $199.99 — though both the date and the price are unconfirmed leaks, not an announcement.
The rumored price fits Verizon's established playbook from mid-2009: the carrier cut the BlackBerry Storm to $99 in July specifically to counter AT&T's iPhone 3G, and the same leak describes an Android handset plus two BlackBerrys arriving alongside the Touch Pro2, making this one wave in a broad fall lineup push.
First-order effects
- If the leak holds, Verizon customers get a flagship Windows Mobile handset with slide-out QWERTY at $199.99 on contract — less than a quarter of its spring unlocked price and $150 under the previously reported launch figure.
- Verizon's fall slate would stack the Touch Pro2 against a rumored Android handset and two BlackBerry models, giving shoppers three platforms at the carrier within weeks of each other.
Second-order effects
- Whatever carrier launched the Touch Pro2 at $349.99 five days earlier faces instant price-pressure from Verizon's deeper subsidy, since identical hardware at $150 less resets buyer expectations across both channels.
- AT&T's iPhone 3G is the reference competitor here: having already matched Apple with a $99 Storm, Verizon extending near-$200 pricing to Windows Mobile forces AT&T and others to defend with subsidy rather than exclusivity.
Third-order effects
- The pattern across 2009 — $880 unlocked collapsing to $199.99 at the carrier window — points to contract subsidy becoming the default pricing mechanism for US smartphones, with hardware list prices increasingly irrelevant to what consumers actually pay.
- As Verizon spreads $200-class pricing across BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Android simultaneously, platform choice migrates toward whatever ecosystem each OS can build on top of parity-priced hardware.
The trend: US carriers are converging every flagship smartphone on a $199.99-on-contract price point through escalating subsidies, turning device selection into a network-and-ecosystem decision.