Well that would certainly be a nightmare for Apple if Amazon was coming with the equivalent of a Galaxy S4 for free. But I'm not quite sure that Apple would be

Well that would certainly be a nightmare for Apple if Amazon was coming with the equivalent of a Galaxy S4 for free. But I'm not quite sure that Apple would be the worse off compared to others. I does not really matter whether or not a brand has current plan for the low end: if people expectation are set to high-end phone == free, I'm not sure why they would want an low end phone unless what, you pay them ? What really matter is what brand has an alternative way of funding those phones. IMO that means killing "open" Android, anything open really. Apple can still rely on the App Store and its walled-garden. MS tiny markeshare will probably make them give up under the risk of bleeding to death. Samsung has enough marketshare to build its own walled garden. Google would have some thinking to do, I'm sure other brand will start to question how valuable their client really are for Goolge. As for the rest of the Android player, RIM, ... well good luck.