Four (now five) days after the original launch day of the AT&T BlackBerry Torch, Amazon does what it’s known for and offer great prices. While still $199.99 with a two-year contract in AT&T stores across the nation, Amazon is selling the Torch for a mere $99.99 with a two-year contract. Now, some have claimed that the low price is due to the unimpressive sales of the Torch. Nobody expected an iPhone-like launch with millions of phones sold on launch day. Nobody lined up to get their BlackBerry Torch, and we didn’t expect them to either. But that doesn’t constitute a price cut, and that isn’t what has happened here, contrary to what many others have been saying.

Amazon simply sells phones lower than carrier stores, they always have. Most online suppliers do, too. When you buy a phone from a supplier like Amazon, there are two agreements in effect, and many people are unaware of that. You’re agreeing to the carrier’s terms and conditions, as well as Amazon’s which are as follows:

When you purchase your device with service from Amazon.com, we automatically pass along an instant discount from the carrier to you. This discount has been provided to you based on your agreement to (a) activate a new, or extend an existing, line of service for this device with the carrier, and (b) maintain this service in good standing for a minimum of 181 consecutive days. If you do not activate or extend a line of service in connection with this device, or if your service is canceled/disconnected before 181 consecutive days, Amazon.com will charge you $250 per device, plus applicable taxes.

The Torch has been given mixed reviews here and there and not everyone is a huge fan of the sliding design. It is, however, running RIM’s new BlackBerry 6, which a lot of people are seeming to love. It isn’t what I want from RIM, I want more, but this is a good step in the right direction. I feel that once RIM gets BlackBerry 6 loaded on a full touchscreen device, things will go a little more smoothly for them. They really botched the marketing for BlackBerry 6 and the Torch to people that don’t follow BlackBerry news by not releasing word of the device until a week before its release. So I expected pretty low sales, but RIM has proven that they are not yet a dying breed.

Is this low price due to low sales? No. It’s Amazon, who has done the same with phones like the Samsung Captivate, which is still $200 with a two-year contract in AT&T stores, but $49.99 on Amazon with the same two-year contract. Take of it what you will, but this is nothing out of the ordinary.

via: MobileCrunch