The $399 price of the new HTC One A9 is apparently just a "promotional pre-sale" incentive, but the smartphone will actually cost $499 once it launches.
The HTC One A9 has stirred lots of interest ever since its debut and has received some positive attention, but it also sparked plenty of negative reactions mostly related to its design.
More specifically, many consumers argued that HTC copied Apple's smartphone design and the One A9 looks like an iPhone clone. HTC, for its part, defended its design and said that Apple was in fact the copycat.
Leaving the copycat issues aside, the HTC One A9 is a good-looking phone with decent mid-range specifications packed in a premium design. The company initially announced a $399 price tag for its new One A9, which seemed like a good price for the specs it has to offer.
It now turns out, however, that HTC was not completely transparent from the beginning when it comes to the real price of the One A9. That $399 price is apparently just a teaser applicable only to pre-sales, but it's a limited-time promotion set to expire as soon as the phone makes its retail debut.
Come Nov. 7, 2015, the HTC One A9 will cost $100 more, as its regular retail price will be $499 on HTC's U.S. online store.
As a reminder, the HTC One A9 features a 5-inch display with a full HD (1080p) resolution and packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, which many found disappointing. Other specs include 3GB of RAM (at least in some markets such as the U.S.), 32GB of internal storage capacity, expandable via microSD, and a 13-megapixel rear camera, among the highlights.
In other words, the HTC One A9 sounds like a good mid-ranger at least on paper and its $399 price tag seemed appropriate for its specifications. That attractive price could've helped HTC overcome the whole design controversy and regain some of its lost market share, but the real price of the smartphone once the promo ends may not appeal to many shoppers.
"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," a HTC spokesperson confirmed to Slashgear.
"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."
It's also worth pointing out that the new $499 price point is just the SRP, but carriers, retailers and local sales regions could add to that cost and the device could have an even higher price.
Consequently, interested HTC One A9 customers who think the $499 price tag is too high have less than two weeks to get the handset at the promotional $399 price.
