T-Mobile Comet launches tomorrow for $10

The recently-made-official T-Mobile Comet, also known as the Huawei Ideos, officially goes on sale tomorrow...and it's even cheaper than we originally thought. When it was first announced, everyone suspected that it would cost less than $100 on contract, maybe even less than $50. But both numbers were wrong, as the device is going to be sold for a mere 10 bucks.



That price is, of course, after the standard $50 rebate. But even so, this places the Comet squarely in the feature-phone space, and makes it one of the cheapest Android devices available. It's common for 3rd party retailers like Wirefly or Amazon to sell even high-end devices for next to nothing, but the Comet marks the first time a brand new Android device has been so cheap directly from the carrier.

The Comet isn't the fastest or most advanced device out there, of course, but it should appeal to first-time smartphone buyers and should serve them well. It features a small, 2.8" screen, 528MHz processor, 3MP camera, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, and an FM radio. It is powered by stock Android 2.2, Froyo, and initial reviews say it runs surprisingly fast and smooth. It goes on sale at T-Mobile tomorrow, November 3. [via MobileCrunch]

I think this is going to really cut into feature-phone sales for the holiday shopping season. All of those people who are buying new phones for Christmas are likely going to consider this, just because it's so ridiculously cheap. Those specs are similar to the G1, and since it runs stock Froyo, it is likely to be pretty fast. It's not for me, of course, but it's a solid contender for those first-time smartphone buyers.

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I agree that this is a great bridge phone into the smartphone world. This is also a great choice for less-than-responsible kids/teenagers who want to be able to do more with their phones, but shouldn't spend too much money on one. Plus, it comes in all those fun colors, which will probably make it an even more popular choice for that age set.

I think the pricing is interesting. So many feature phones are free on contract, I wonder why they chose $10 instead of just making it free. But on the other hand, I think the $10 price point is perfect, because, really, that's practically free, but it sets it just enough apart from the rest of the feature phones to make it seem like a more valuable product (which it is).