The $600-700 pricetag is quite normal for any high end phone like the Galaxy S and HTC Desire HD as well, particularly outside the US. I also don't see why you are complaining about US cellphone contracts. Have you seen the prices for voice, text, and data in European countries? No all-you-can-eat unlimited buffets either. Most of them give out free phones as well, on-contract. Off-contract users in the US are NOT subsidizing other people's expensive phones. Prepaid off-contract is MUCH cheaper than contract prices.
Right, there are subsidized contracts in the rest of the world. I see that, but people aren't jumping left and right primarily because it's ALL GSM. Meaning if I sign with Orange today or Taiwan Mobile or any other carrier, I'm free to bring an iPhone, get an iPhone, buy a Nexus One, buy a Desire HD, etc and slap in a SIM.
People don't switch around left and right. The reason people do so in the US is because of exclusive phones, non interoperating networks, etc. The closest you get is T-mo and AT&T but with different 3G bands, it's ugh. With VZW and Sprint you had an interoperable 3G network but neither network lets you use each other's phones, etc.
It's just stupid.
BTW, akugami, you don't save by bringing your own phone. You still have to pay up the ass. The benefit with AT&T is you can get away with the $15 / month plan, but even for 24 months, you don't make your money back.
But i do agrree. People thinking they deserve free phones is retarded. There's a reason the iPhone 2G came out at $599 and then later reduced to $399. Then the $199 spree came. Feature phones used to run $199 and now smartphones run $199. Seriously? How do carriers get that money back? Data plans, huge charges here, huge ETF increases.
So yeah, I wish people got the idea of getting unlocked phones and carriers got that through their head. Data costs should be fixed, not dependent on 3g, smartphone, 4g, etc. It should just be flat data charges (fine if you want tiered or metered, whatever, but it should be across the board charges). Get the whole subsidy fix out of people's heads.