M3 Music Card - Prices in USA

Greetings!

I am a new member and presently do not own any Meizu products. I am, however, in the market for a black 8gb M3, but have a few questions regarding its price. I noticed in a recent article that the 8gb M3 will sell for $120 in the US, but does anyone know when it will be available in the US?

Why are they priced so high? Is this a seller's markup since the M3 just came out in China? Will the M3's 8gb price ever drop to the previously reported $120? If so, when? I just want to know whether I should buy the M3 online now or wait a few months. Thank you!

The prices on the front page are for China.

To get a unit to the States, there are some fees to be paid. More specifically, the MP3 license license fee to Sisvel, shipping fees and import duties. Sellers would need some margin to cover returns and warranty issues.

Thank you for your help Err0r. Does this mean the price won't be dropping online anytime soon -ie closer to $120 as in China? Who has the best prices and customer service online?

I would like to ideally pay for $150 (shipping included) and would prefer not to buy off eBay. I think houseofdap.com has the best price, but they are out of stock.

I don't suppose there is a reliable Chinese company that could ship it to the US for cheap... is there?

price drop is not in plans at this time, in fact M6 price was increased few days ago due to flash memory price increase.

M3 is a really new product so expect to pay what it worths the first 6 months at least. HOD has a great customer service and pretty good communication.

Originally Posted by serleomar

I noticed in a recent article that the 8gb M3 will sell for $120 in the US, but does anyone know when it will be available in the US?

It is a little confusing when pricing gets posted by Meizu. As Job stated, these are for prices in China, not the rest of the world. There are a lot of additional costs to importing and licensing that make the prices higher than those shown for China. So, comparing mainland prices to the rest of the world, whether it's M3 or M6, isn't really apples to apples.

As for M3 US availability, that is still up in the air. Dane-Elec has exclusive distribution rights of ALL Meizu products for North America, and much of the EU. From my conversations with them, they and Meizu are in preliminary discussion, but nothing more. Even if they do agree on M3 distribution, it would be months before it would hit the US market, with packaging changes, firmware, etc., that would need to be undertaken.

And, while Meizu has tried to do a better job of policing the unauthorized distribution by the previously mentioned sales outlets, there will be some that will make it to market.

Originally Posted by jarmarc

Even if they do agree on M3 distribution, it would be months before it would hit the US market, with packaging changes, firmware, etc., that would need to be undertaken...

I notice you mentioned firmware in the US market. Does this imply that if I were to buy an M3 online, that I would be using Chinese firmware? Sorry, I am not the most tech-savy person and I just want to cover all my bases before I buy an M3. I am from the US and know no Asian languages. I alos assume that because the M3 has not been released in the US, that the instruction manual is not available in English. Is this true? If so, how difficult is the M3 to use without a manual? I plan on using all functions except video.

Thank you!

Meizu generally uses English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese as their default languages. As for the manual, I don't know what would come with a Chinese version. Since it was only released in China, I would guess you would only have a Chinese User manual, but I'm not certain on that.