HTC Philippines

HTC Philippines held a sale on December 18th to launch the company's new Windows Phone hardware. Both the HTC 8X and HTC 8S were stocked at the HTC Concept Store in SM North Edsa where an enticing deal was on offer. The first 128 consumers who queued to purchase either smartphone received a considerable discount.

The HTC 8X and 8S were priced at discounted levels of Php 19,988 ($487) and Php 9,988 ($243) respectively, instead of the usual Php 26,500 ($645) and Php 14,600 ($353). Unbox.ph headed over to the store in order to take full advantage of the special offer, as did a number of consumers evident from photos captured by the team. Demand was fairly high for the Windows Phones.

According to the website's report, a sizeable queue (see above photo) began accumulating as early as 10am. It would be a full two hour wait before the store would begin selling the discounted units at 12am. Luckily they arrived in time to be one of 128 consumers and were able to make use of the launch deal.

HTC Philippines Line

If the discount wasn't enough for early wakers, HTC also bundled a branded jacket to further incentivise the purchase of their Windows Phones. It's good to see HTC pouring in the effort to engage consumers with exciting deals to push units out the doors of stores. We've reviewed both the HTC 8X and 8S and found both Windows Phones to be well worth the price tags, so to hear about discounts makes one slightly jealous.

With the Samsung ATIV S hitting markets and both HTC and Nokia kicking off planned marketing campaigns, Microsoft's Windows Phone brand awareness will jump up from where the platform was this time last year. Hardware is unique enough to attract interest from potential customers, which is an advantage that matches the loaded operating system.

We've witnessed Windows Phone 8 hardware selling out, particularly the Lumia 920. Be sure to let us know of any more deals that have popped up in other markets.

Source: Unbox.ph; thanks, jedi12, for the tip!