Prices can be negotiated with the carriers. Remember the original iPhone's 600$ price tag? Infact, MS supposedly got a very good pricing deal with Verizon which they botched up by not meeting the agreed upon timelines.
Yeah, it's still that high.
> MS supposedly got a very good pricing deal with Verizon
For the market, no. It was pretty clear when the product came out the pricing for the market it was going after was still too high.