

Why iPhone pricing and market share are different in the US to everywhere else. - AndrewDucker
http://www.ben-evans.com/post/25177869096/iphone-pricing-and-us-market-share

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pmoehring
This throws up various questions:

\- Is the UK market simply more competitive, and is the fight over individual
customers tougher? I.e. need the "other" smartphones be cheaper to compete?

\- Besides the hardware, what are potential cost drivers? It seems that the UK
networks are much stronger and more ready to deal with the iPhone/smartphone
traffic vs. the US - yet the prices are cheaper.

\- On competition: servicing a smaller country like the UK is much easier and
less capital intensive than servicing the large USA. As networks are about
nationwide coverage, the big 3 in the US can dictate prices much easier. Also,
setting high roaming prices for smaller networks' users will discourage
competition from below. Is regulation good for the UK customers? (there's a
lot of roaming regulation in the EU and UK)

\- In the UK, especially Blackberry is still a very strong contender in the
smartphone segment. Anecdotal evidence: kids very often own Blackberries and
are addicted to BBM here. Why are UK customers more "gullible" to buy a
Blackberry vs the US? I would chalk it up to the difference in sophistication
of the mobile usage.

TL; DR: Smartphones & data plans are hella expensive in the US.

