I don't think it's likely, but I deeply hope that Google (or somebody else) can kill the US addiction to subsidized handsets. The market will be so much more efficient and flexible when we pay for phones as phones and pay for service as service.
As is, I have to do the unlock dance, and have a phone that crashes semi-randomly. I'm very unlikely to buy another iPhone again, at least not unless they sell them as unlocked handsets, and I'm also unlikely to use it with AT&T.
Shitting on your customers is such a stupid strategy.
Maybe if the discounts were much steeper and widespread, but as of now, I still don't see a reason.
$20 * 24 = $480, roughly what your phone is worth except you're stuck with the carrier for 2 years.
So a month before my 2-year contract is up, my ETF would be the same as if I cancelled within the first month. This is bogus if the reasoning is so that the carriers can 'recoup the cost of the phone that they were subsidizing.'
Even with the pro-rated ETFs now, IIRC they won't be insignificant at the 'month before the end of a 2-year contract' point even though the carrier has obviously made back most (if not all) of their sunk costs by then...
ETFs are there because the mobile carriers like to bank your monthly fees as a constant revenue stream, and when people cancel early it screws up their numbers and projections, much in the same way that banks penalize you for closing out a CD early. Talk about how it's to 'protect the carriers from people that cancel early without covering the full cost of the phone' is just people buying in to the BS story that the US mobile industry's PR depts have been telling us for years.
They didn't decide. Non-prorated fees were found to be unenforceable. I'd call that forced.
If we could buy a phone from Europe, off Craigslist, a phone from ATT but switch to Verizon, etc., and not worry about carrier, we would start to question the contracts and pricing structure. There would be a huge demand for discounts (with the real threat of being able to take our phone elsewhere if they didn't comply) on non-subsidized phones.
Number portability means carriers can't offer phones at steep discounts without the contract. People figure "I'm going to have a cell phone for the next 2 years anyway, I might as well just pick one carrier and get it for free."
For cellular phones, the $200-300 hardware cost is easily recouped over two years on a $70.00 monthly plan.
The difference can likely be explained by how some combination of the economics, regulation, politics, culture, geography is different in the US.
I would love to get a droid phone that does just that.
That's because you have a basic understanding of math and finance, unlike an alarmingly large percentage of the population.
People who are so bad at savings that they want the government to hold their money are taking the contract.