Few people are paying those prices. Cell providers sell these at far less: on the order of 60% of Googles retail price.

Well, minor nit- cell providers offer it for 60% Google’s price to start[0], while locking it into a phone contract that subsidizes it. This is effectively bundling a loan for the hardware with your data plan. That price is more of a down payment on said loan.

[0] actually in the US at least they’ll frequently offer it for “free” with a new plan, that of course locks the phone to said plan.

Yeah, I bought a Pixel 10 Pro 256 GB yesterday. Should have been $1,099. But Google e-mailed me a $150 off coupon code, I got $450 off for being a Google Fi subscriber, plus $100 as a trade-in for my Pixel 6. My actual price for the 10 Pro was $399.