What is T-Mobile Thinking? TMo Said to be Pricing the Touch Pro2 Above the iPhone! Ack!

UPDATE: Well, it is true. T-Mobile priced the Touch Pro 2 at $349.99…

T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro 2 product page

Imagine for a moment you are T-Mobile USA strategy analyst looking at yourself and your three bigger competitiors (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon). Let’s see how things stack up:

1. T-Mobile has the smallest voice network of the big 4
2. T-Mobile was last to the 3G dance and has the smallest US 3G footprint of the big 4
3. Your biggest direct competitor AT&T (T-Mobile and AT&T both use GSM for voice) has a bigger footprint and the 8,000 pound phone gorilla – the iPhone
4. Your newest and most interesting Windows Mobile smartphone in years is going to be carried by your other three

So, given these facts, how would you price your potential Windows Mobile flagship product? Well, according to TmoNews…

HTC Touch Pro 2 Pricing Revealed

…you price it at a extremely high SUBSIDIZED price (2 year contract) of $349.99! That’s right. Your competitor sells the iPhone 3GS for $199 or $299 (16 or 32GB models) and you price your phone with a zero mindshare buzz HIGHER than what you are selling against.

I’m hoping that TmoNews is wrong (they rarely are, unfortunately) about this pricing. I’m heading to my local T-Mobile store later today to buy a Touch Pro2 (I’m a Windows Mobile fan despite its zero mindshare) and will find out first hand.

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