The US also has a lot of older infrastructure items and replacing them is a huge undertaking an order of magnitude higher than Sweden. But by your own data Sweden has a fraction of the population of the US and at a fraction of the size area wise. These devices APPEAR competitively priced compared to other smartphones, but in my opinion, they’re way overpriced. My advice to anyone who is thinking about getting one of these phones is to do a little math before you unwittingly lay down all that cash (unless, of course, cash is no obstacle). To some degree, all phone manufacturers are subsidized by carriers - but Apple is particularly egregious. They’re moving the costs to the cellular carrier, and betting that the average buyer will be too stupid to realize how much they’re paying (since spending $30 – 45 per month doesn’t seem like a lot, until you do the math). In order to cover this subsidy, AT&T is increasing the price of the unlimited data rate from $20 to $30-45 per month. That means the unsubsidized price of the phone is somewhere in the ballpark of $400. AT&T is subsidizing Apple as much as $200 for each phone so that it can drop the initial price of the iPhone to $199. Why would that be different for any other 3G device that AT&T sells?
Why would they suddenly change the current $20 unlimited data to $30-$45? I seriously doubt Apple will allow that especially after they just announced a major price drop to get more customers. Put those costs together, and you have a very pricey little device. According to sources that I’ve read, AT&T is going to charge somewhere in the ballpark of $30-45 per month for unlimited data. I believe that his point was that $199 is NOT the total cost of the phone, after you factor in the 2 year service contract.
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