Best Buy pushing cheap Android mobiles this Christmas

One of the major strengths of the Android platform is being showcased by Best Buy this holiday season - which is its ability to be much cheaper than an iPhone. The electronics retailer is offering a variety of Android devices to consumers for $99 each - not the Droid, unfortunately!

Howzat?

Ok, so Best Buy is offering five different kinds of Android. The Hero, Cliq, myTouch, Moment and ERIS are all up for grabs - for $99 each. That price doesn’t include the two year contract you have to sign to get the device, but it does drop the price of some of the handsets pretty dramatically. For example, without any plan the Hero would usually set you back $600. The ERIS is $500.

When it comes to deals like that, I’m always fairly sketchy because of the mail-in rebate system. Retailers often factor rebates into the advertised price, but the truth about rebates is that people often forget to mail them in. Interestingly, Best Buy is now offering in-store rebates… so you can cash it in right there on the shop floor. What that’s going to do to Best Buys profit margins from these devices is its business, but apparently it thinks it’ll be worth it.

What kind of plans are we talking about?

That actually depends on the carriers. Best Buy is offering the deals on the handsets, but the two year contract has to be signed with one of the three networks who carry Android devices sold by Best Buy.

What we think?

Best Buy is getting into mobile in a big way. At the end of October it announced it had bought out Napster, which will have a large mobile presence in 2010. Less than a week later, Google announced a deal with Best Buy to get applications placed preferentially on consumersphones. As Best Buy shoots to profit from more complex, data-based mobile services, is it any wonder it’s trying to get as many smartphones into consumers pockets as possible?