you can't ignore the fact that the N4 is half the price of other phones in its class.
I wonder why the phone is so much cheaper (both in absolute and relative terms) in the US than it is here in Sweden. Here it's exactly the same price as the SGS3 and the iPhone 4S and quite a bit more than the HTC One X.
I liked the fact they took it into account too. I did find this review of the IPad Mini particularly amusing:
"Lining those pluses and minuses up against those for the Nexus 7 – which garnered four stars – there's no doubt that this is indeed a five-star device. The 70% difference in comparative price is more than made up by the difference in build quality and software selection"
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/31/ipad-mini-r...)
Not arguing one way or the other but this and a few other recent reviews have made me wonder why tech reviewers seem to pay so little attention to price.
I think it's actually illegal in the EU to sell products bellow cost. We call it dumping but it seems Amazon and Google are able to do it just fine in the US. So that might be one reason.
This is not why; the nexus4 is much cheaper than the SGS3 in the UK. (240/280 VS ~400).
Moreover, google and amazon do NOT sell below cost. They are near cost, for the cheapest version, at launch. Go look at how much tablets sell for in China if you think their tablets are below cost. (or miumiu phones).
I do think they might sell bellow cost. Of course, it's illegal to say it so they claim it's at cost. Amazon even brags there is no margin: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/10/12/amazon-ma... but I wonder, if they are so desperate for market share, wouldn't get go a bit further. I think they do.
Its 299 (granted € not $) in Germany too, thats more expensive than in the US but still cheap for a phone like that!
Cool phone, LTE is a non issue for me since its not widely available here anyway and with the tiny amount of data your get here (i have 300Megs included in my contract after which it gets slowed down to dialup speeds) its kinda useless.
The odd thing is the Shenzhen Foxcon factory is closer to Berlin than San Francisco. Somehow, even excluding taxes, it's still more expensive in Germany.
And a difference of 7% is substantial for a product with no margins.
In Spain Google is advertising the Nexus 4 for 299€ / 349€. So I don't really know what is going on in Sweden. Maybe is because they don't use the euro as its currency?
I wonder why the phone is so much cheaper (both in absolute and relative terms) in the US than it is here in Sweden. Here it's exactly the same price as the SGS3 and the iPhone 4S and quite a bit more than the HTC One X.