You make some very valid claims about different pricing models. I live in Germany. My iPhone 4 cost me 200$ up front and 35$ per month for two years. Phone call

You make some very valid claims about different pricing models. I live in Germany. My iPhone 4 cost me 200$ up front and 35$ per month for two years. Phone calls are something like 10 ct/minute and SMS are single-digit ct, too. Hence, lifetime cost of an iPhone 4 in Germany is probably equivalent to some cheap-o feature phone in the US. Talking about any kind of similarities between US phone markets and foreign markets only shows that one has no idea about non-US markets.