That makes no sense: here they sell unlocked phones but you still have to keep contract for two years if you want it subsidized.
So there's no reason to rise phone prices: you still have to pay full contact subscription even if you change the phone.
So there's no reason to rise phone prices: you still have to pay full contact subscription even if you change the phone.
locked - monthly payment * 24 = phone price + X
X - some money to cover expenses you have as operator because you give phone to user + some money to cover amount of free minutes/MB/SMS (infrastructure is not free) + everything else is profit. Profit might be taken instantly (A) or taken from everything you use above your quota (B). (A) is most probably 0 because of competition.
Now with unlocked phone user might take prepaid card from other operator (that does not work in USA). What happens? B profit goes away. Business is about profit therefore A will grow most probably instead of being zero.
Also pricing being competitive, there's not much difference in SMS/data/call prices outside dataplans.
That makes that claim still silly.
In Greece they have to sell iPhones unlocked, and initial average price is €699.
Easy to check yourself at apple.com.