I'm from a developed country and I don't know anyone who pays for a phone on top of the contract price. It baffles me how in US people get a $50/month contract + they have to pay $200 for the phone. Crazy.
Because the phones are $600? At $50/mo it would take an entire year to pay for just the phone before any revenue could be used for actual operator business.
Yeah. That's exactly how it works. Me and all my friends have top-models of different brands, and I don't know a single person who paid anything upfront. HTC One here - 30 pounds a month contract. Iphone 5S - 35 pounds a month contract. LG G3 - 28 pounds a month. All of these prices roughly translate into $50/month - so why would you pay anything upfront?? And just because a phone costs $600 on the retail market don't assume that operators pay anywhere near that.
The nearest to the $200 upfront is the £150 upfront for the "iPhone 6 plus 128GB", although that's then about $100 a month. For the very latest top-end phone. All the others have tiny or zero upfront fees.
Huh? What country are you from then? Every country I know a bit about in this regards (which covers a sizable part of Europe) has 'get a cheaper contract but still get a more expensive phone by paying up front for a part of it' options.
Alright, I wasn't entirely clear - yes, you can get a cheaper contract and pay a bit upfront for the phone - but I don't know literally anyone who does that. At least in the UK since you can get pretty much any phone model for 30-35 pounds a month people just do that rather than get a 20 pounds/month contract and pay anything upfront for the phone.
Also note that, while the press has nicknamed it $25, it's actually $33.