iPhone-like items are a very small part of anyone's annual budget. What matters are housing costs, transport costs, healthcare costs and quality of life. All of which are highly variable depending on location.
In Taiwan, for example, I got a 3G phone plan for $40 month-to-month, unlimited data, and consistently ~20mbps download speeds.
In developing countries like Thailand or Central America, I can get a 3G card for 60 days and 1-2GB for less than $10. Speeds obviously aren't as good as Taiwan, but the basic access to Internet is way cheaper.