Motorola Milestone XT800 price : Rs. 32000. But why?

Motorola Milestone XT800 aka Motorola Glam – India’s first dual SIM Android phone is going to cost a bomb. The retail price set for XT800 is Rs. 31999. Except Dell Streak all the other Android phones available in India cost less than that. At this price, XT800 is the second costliest Android phone and third costliest Android device (after Galaxy Tab and Dell Streak). Is it worth it?

Motorola Glam XT800 is a dual SIM (GSM+CDMA) 3G phone with 3.7 inch capacitive touch screen. It has a HDMI port, 5 megapixel camera, GPS and WiFi. Motorola Glam has 256 MB RAM and runs on a 550MHz TI processor. It runs Android 2.1 (Froyo).

If you look at the specs and try to compare it with any of the existing Android phones, you would be puzzled at the price of XT800. What XT800 has and what others don’t have is dual SIM capability. What price would you pay for getting an CDMA option too on your phone? It is certainly not 32K. I would rather buy a HTC Desire and top it up with a 3K CDMA phone and tie them together with a thread.

I don’t have the numbers to look at but, I can say this with impunity. Dual SIM CDMA+GSM is not a killer combination. There aren’t as many CDMA operators around and GSM operators outnumbers CDMA operators. Same goes with the offers on prepaid or postpaid connections. A dual SIM (CDMA+GSM) phone is a waste of money, even if it is a Android phone.

Here’s another theory. People who buy dual SIM buy it for three reasons. To keep the existing number, save on offers provided by different operators and keep the roaming costs low by having a out-of-state number. In two of the cases, the emphasis is on money. Why would anyone want to buy a 32K phone and save few bucks on call costs? I am really trying hard to find a reason for the high price. Yet I fail.

What am I missing?