Nokia Lumia 920 has already lost the price wars: HTC Windows Phone 8X, Samsung Galaxy S III much more affordable

The Nokia Lumia 920 was announced to much fanfare a couple of weeks ago with buzz words like wireless charging and extremely responsive screen thrown around, but Nokia didn’t give any details about pricing and carrier availability. And that came in stark contrast with the following HTC presentation where the Taiwanese company announced the Windows Phone 8X and 8S, and explicitly said it has struck deals with over 150 carriers in 50 countries.

Why didn’t Nokia announce its partners and could the culprit lie in the price? Lastly, we learned that Nokia has chosen a shocking price tag for its Lumia 920. Surprisingly, Nokia thought it is adequate to sell its flagship for as much as 25% more than the Samsung Galaxy S III, widely considered a benchmark for high-end Android smartphones.

Lumia 920 price comparison

The Galaxy S III costs around 530 euros ($690 off contract) in Germany. Nokia is pricing the Lumia 920 at 649 euros (around $840) there. At this point of Nokia’s transition, this seems close to absurd. In other markets the price difference might not be that big, but is definitely noticeable and in most cases higher than 10%.

So far only Apple manages to get away with pricing its iPhone way above the competition at 679 euros for the basic 16GB iPhone 5 model.

Interestingly, the equally (if not more) visually exciting HTC Windows Phone 8X with very similar characteristics to the Lumia 920 costs nearly 100 euro ($130) less than the Lumia 920. HTC is adequately estimating the shortcomings of Windows Phone like its weaker ecosystem and is pricing its device to sell, almost on par with the mid-range Nokia Lumia 820.

Nokia ASP with Windows Phone

Nokia on the other hand is bravely pricing the Lumia 920 virtually as high as possible betting on great low light camera, wireless charging and the screen technology. But with Nokia’s devalued brand, are those really enough of a reason? Not announcing carrier availability might mean that operators have picked the cheaper HTC Windows Phone 8X rather than the Lumia 920. And what about you, are you willing to pay the premium for a Nokia Windows Phone?