HTC's One A9 limited time, promotional US offer ending before the phone ships

Remember that great deal on the HTC One A9 I mentioned last week? Despite what I said on MobileTechRoundup show #357 the "limited time, promotional offer" in fine print on the HTC website is actually much more limited than I imagined.

I honestly thought HTC just had that on its website to get buyers to pony up and purchase the device, but the reality is that the "promotion" would never end. It turns out if you want an A9 at the reasonable US price, don't even get me started on the crazy price outside the US, you better order a new HTC One A9 before the end of next week. Here's the official HTC statement:

The cost of the HTC One A9 is the same worldwide to all distributors and operator partners. For end consumers, HTC's sales regions are given the freedom to set prices and promotions as they see fit for local market needs. The One A9 price in the US is a very limited-time promotional offer for that region's online store, as well as select HTC-only franchise stores. The offer is a special promotional pre-sale and is expected to conclude once the One A9 is available on-shelf at major retail and distributor partners.

After the promotional pre-sale offer ends, the new price in the US at htc.com will be $499.99 beginning 12:01am on 11/7.

So the HTC One A9's real price is $500, which puts the One A9 at the same price as the super-powered new Google Nexus 6P. Sorry HTC, you had me at $400 and I actually pre-ordered the Deep Garnet model, but at $500 it's a tough sell even in the US market.

While a $100 price increase still puts it $150 less than the unacceptable 16GB iPhone 6s, that is still a significant amount for many people. In many states, that also means more in sales tax, about $10 more for me here in Washington. The HTC One A9 is a very good smartphone...at $400. At $500, it's not quite the deal. Stay tuned for my full review coming tomorrow.