Obscene Price Drop: The Nokia 3310 A Decade Later

3.1.12 The Reporter 0 Comments

Yesterday, one of the biggest tech surprises greeted me when I went out to meet friends in Iloilo City: the Nokia 3310, once a premium, sought-after, popular phone, now costs only Php 190.

I lusted after the Nokia 3310 back in the years 2000 to 2001, when I was in my 4th year of high school, and about to graduate. I remember that when it debuted on the market, it cost Php 11,000. Within months, the price had dropped to Php 8,000. My mother got my unit for around a few hundred pesos shy of Php 8,000. By the year 2004, the 3310 was picked off of my bag, while I was walking towards SM City Iloilo.

Today, a little over a decade later, the thing that cost almost as much as a Cherry Mobile Magnum, HTC Wildfire S, a couple of Samsung Galaxy Y's, now only costs as much as a month's worth of Sun Cellular's Power Text Unlimited 200. Or but 50 pesos more than a month's worth of Text Unlimited for both Sun Cellular and Talk and Text*. Imagine that.

As to its durability, I'm not so sure about that. I'm thinking about getting one before I go back to where I live, mid-January.

Last year, when I was still based in Iloilo City, the 3310 had cost around Php 490 to Php 590. Today, they dropped the prices to such an obscene level, presumably because no one who can afford better phones would want to buy a 3310 anymore.

With Cherry Mobile, Torque and MyPhone offering *brand new* DUAL-SIM phones ranging from Php 700 to Php 2,000, who, in his right mind, would even still consider a 3310, in this day and age?

Well, ideas are popping up in my mind, but I believe, this obscene price drop bodes good news for quite a lot of people:

• People who were held back from joining the texting populace, like the blue collar workers, the household help, and other people from lower-income circles now have access to mobile phones. They can now buy the phones they need to text friends and family!
• People who hire household help need not think twice about purchasing mobile phone units for their staff. At these prices, who would think twice?
• Events organizers, office managers and other people who need a massive number of phones can easily allocate a budget for 10 to 20 units. Come elections, it would be a fast and easy ordeal to deploy 20 units of 3310s. Ten units will cost only Php 1,900, while 20 units will cost Php 3,800.

This also means bad news for certain circles:

• Bad elements will now have faster, easier access to mobile phones. Maybe it would be a great idea for shop owners to register the IMEI's of the phone units purchased for their companies, or to keep a registry of bulk purchases.
• This means that those who are in the market to buy phones will now have to think twice about whether in 10 years' time, they'll see their units for sale at a little more than 1/100th of its original price.

The first concern may be a very legitimate one, and the authorities should actually be on the lookout for crimes aided by the ease of purchase of mobile phones. The second one is nothing but mere vanity, but for those who are concerned, the phone brands I've seen that were knocked off the most, or sold at these rates were Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola. Take note that these are 100% similar to the original units, since these are still GSM/2G phones, and not like the Chinaphones/Smartphone copies: these look like their knockoffs, but the software that powers these are clearly Chinaphone OS'.

With the speed that technology is developing, buyers wonder what's a good measure for upgrading or buying their phones: How often, at what rate, how soon after release, those kinds of things. Let's answer this question tomorrow!