The price was including taxes (VAT), and I guess they would ship it from UK to European backers, with no duties inside the European union.

I agree that the price was high, but not higher than for other phones in the same market segment (comparable hardware and such). The problem with the price is that it wasn't very attractive either. A new, untested phone 9 months from now, for the same price and with comparable hardware to currently existing phones.

IMO finance is not a good idea for this sort of thing - it would only encourage people to buy something they can't really afford. This is a luxury even in the modern era of smartphones being commonplace, nobody needs to have it.

It seems to me that your definition of 'normal people' makes bankers happy, as normal people then pay a lot of money in interest.