When you are the largest online retailer in the world, you can sometimes get away with doing things that smaller retailers can not. One case in point is Amazon announcing this week that they were lowering the retail price on every smartphone that is offered by Verizon, Sprint or AT&T that is purchased in their Amazon Wireless Store to one penny in their Penny Pincher Sale. Obviously, this requires a new two-year activation, but previously smartphones like the Motorola Droid RAZR and Epic Touch 4G retailed from $200 to $300, and that was with a new two-year agreement as well. The strategy when employing such a heavy “loss leader” position is two-fold.
Learn more about the Penny Pincher Sale one penny smartphone deals.
Amazon hopes to draw business from the competition, while simultaneously attracting customers to more than just the handset purchase. Amazon’s marketing strategy of suggesting accessories and other items that will appeal to a customer has proven effective, and certainly Amazon hopes that customers basically getting a $200 or $300 handset for free will feel they have more money to spend elsewhere on the site. And while that single incentive would appear to be strong enough to appeal to someone currently shopping for a smartphone, Amazon has dug even deeper into their marketing play book for yet another carrot to dangle in front of prospective customers.
As a second incentive to buy a smartphone on their web site before the November 28 expiration of the one penny deal, Amazon will also reward those buyers who sign up for HotSpot access at the time of purchase a $100 Amazon Gift Card. Learn more about the Mobile Hotspot gift with purchase. The bargain basement deal also includes free two day shipping, legitimizing a purchasing decision even further still. The Amazon promotion will almost certainly help give Google a much-needed push toward their ongoing chase of Apple for the title of most devices sold using their operating systems.
Apple announced recently that they have sold over 250 million iOS devices as of the launch of their Apple iPhone 4S, and that number includes iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. With more than 200 million Android devices sold worldwide, and 550,000 new Android products being activated every day, the Amazon incentives are just gravy for Google. Amazon does not include T-Mobile smartphones in their Penny Pincher Sale, and Apple’s iPhones are not eligible either, as they are only available from 3rd party vendors, and not at Amazon’s Wireless Store.
In May, 400,000 Android devices were activated daily, so the recent 550,000 daily activation announcement last week at the Google Music Event shows that volume has increased prior to the Amazon announcement. Recent Android phones like the Motorola Droid Bionic and Droid RAZR are two smartphones which were both promoted heavily, and no doubt joined the globally popular Samsung Galaxy S II devices to help give Google that boost. All three of those handsets are available at the one penny retail price at the Amazon Wireless Store.
Here are some of the phones included in the Penny Pincher Sale:
- Motorola Droid Razr
- Samsung Epic Touch 4G
- Samsung Skyrocket
- HTC Rezound
- Samsung Galaxy S II
- Motorola Droid Bionic
- And many more!!
