True. For a variety of reasons, cell phones in the US don't follow typical economic patterns of similarly priced items. Most people still lease and/or finance

True. For a variety of reasons, cell phones in the US don't follow typical economic patterns of similarly priced items. Most people still lease and/or finance them, and insure them. Concerning insurance, using a shared risk pool to insure against an easily coverable expense (replacement cost) and fairly common event(damage/loss) is a bit of an anomoly. A combination of convienience and unfamiliarity with the technology have created(or allowed carriers to create/promote) this phenomenon