Nokia Lumia 820 & 920 To Be Aggressively Priced?

Yes, we’ve seen the European pricing be announced for the Lumia 920 & 820 and the flagship product does seem on the higher side of the scale compared to the HTC 8X which will be released around the same time. In the U.S. the big question is pricing. Will Nokia and AT&T price the latest flagship effort as aggressively as they did the Lumia 900? Or maybe Nokia feels they have clearly the best phone on the market and don’t have to win on price so consumers are looking at the $199 mark?

I personally have been fighting myself on this pricing issue. Since I’m a big fan of the Lumia 920 and will be purchasing my bold Red version on day 1 I’d love to see AT&T introduce the 920 at $99. The logic side of me is telling me to be cautious and go with the not as aggressive but definitely a differentiating price of $149. We are talking about a fully loaded phone carrying all the latest goodies and 32GB of storage. The 820 I’ve thought needed to be priced at $79 although $49 would be even better. These phones need to be priced to move and move fast and consistently and able to withstand any pricing pressure from their competitors. The Galaxy S III has been out for almost half a year so it is now being reduced to close to $99 U.S. in a lot of places. Just checked the AT&T website and they have the 16GB version of the GS III listed at $199. Of course we know that the iPhone 5 starts at $199 for just the 16GB version and no discounts will be coming from Apple.

If you haven’t read it yet, in Paul Thurrott’s latest WinInfo: Short Takes, he thinks the pricing will be even more aggressive though on the higher end of his guesses. How aggressive? For the Lumia 820 (Free or $49) and the Lumia 920 ($49 or $99). To be clear Thurrott hasn’t made any claims to possess any inside knowledge these are just his opinions. I only bring his guesses up because it made me wonder if I was being too cautious in my approach. One of the big benefits of an exclusive launch partner is aggressive marketing. Pricing certainly falls into that category and AT&T has shown it isn’t afraid to price the Lumia flagship very aggressively.

For now I’m taking the cautious approach and think that AT&T will be introducing this phone at $149 although I won’t complain at all if its at $99. If AT&T is really pushing to get off its iPhone’s dependency then this is their best chance at it. A $99 Lumia 920 will be a tough act to match for the iPhone considering Apple’s refusal to discount their products and their 16GB phone would be twice as much for half as much memory. Consumers could easily purchase the Lumia 920 and spend $50 to secure their top 50 app, games and music and still come out saving.

What say you? I’m anxious to hear what you, the reader, has to say about pricing expectations. Drop a comment below and lets get the conversation rolling.