You are mixing carrier subsidy. Price is in the same ballpark.
> big difference, however
Lumia 520 is far behind in features. It has single SIM, no Gorilla glass, smaller screen, smaller battery, half the RAM (although double internal storage)
The dual-sim 630 just came out in India [0], but the price appears to be closer to $200. It has a 4.5" gorilla glass screen, but keeps the 512MB of RAM, and has no LTE support (that's in the coming-soon 635).
See my other comment on this thread for thoughts on how a 512MB WP device might provide a better long-term experience than a 1GB Android device in some ways.
I find this low-end market fascinating. Personally I use and prefer a Nexus 5, but as a WP developer it's eye-opening to see that fully 50% of our active WP8 user sessions are on a 512MB WP device (and almost half of those are 520/521).
[0] http://www.ibtimes.co.in/nokia-lumia-630-india-price-reveale...
That's not my point. You are getting better specs (higher mAh) on Moto E for the same price. That's all. Which one will last longer per charge will be out soon.
And for that price difference the differences in features become irrelevant, especially when you take into account the surprisingly good build quality of the device and the fact that WP runs very well on low spec devices.
So, MS has committed to excellent support. Even these low-end WP8 devices are getting the 8.1 update, and it runs really well on them. MS has every reason to support these devices throughout the complete WP8.x lifecycle.
And MS is heavily pushing for developers to make sure their apps work there. This was a huge focus at the recent MS Build conference.
Contrast this with the Moto E, which is only promised "at least one update" to another version of Android. My original Nexus 7 became quite sluggish after a couple of OS updates.
Of course, I'd rather own an Android phone than a WP phone, and app availability is just a totally different ballpark. But for a "basic" smartphone, given the price, performance, and support, I think the 520 might win for a ton of users.
[0] http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/No-Contr...
Prepaid carriers often still discount phones to prices that would not be workable without the expectation of the phone being used on their network. Similar things have happened with the Moto G, which retailed for ~180 in the US, but is readily available from prepaid carriers for ~100.
Time will tell, but I expect that some will retail the Moto E for <80 once it goes on sale here.
The MSRP on Lumia 520 > MSRP on Moto E. It's possible that some e-tailers might give you a good discount on 520 because it's more than a year old. The price on unlocked Lumia 520 that I see is $110. http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-Lumia-Unlocked-Windows-Phone/dp/...
Yes but to be fair the Lumia 520 is also over a year old at this point (went on sale in April 2013).