Mobile providers usually offer loans ("service contracts") where people get phones outside their financial standing (I regularly see high end iPhones and foldable phones of €1-2k run by people in a country where average monthly salary is less than €1k): if a highly visible device like your phone can be had for 10% of your monthly salary, people will, unfortunately, opt for it.

I tend to not use Apple not due to cost (I honestly believe it's OK to pay a premium for quality; I might disagree they offer it today though, as I do use a couple of their devices at work), but because of how closed their ecosystem is (and yes, all my personal devices are running some sort of Linux, and Android phones are rooted and with bootloader unlocked).

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pjmlp 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Many countries prefer the freedom of pre-pay/post-pay than being bound by contracts though.

Not everyone has the US culture of running their life on credit.

Because when life changes, it isn't only their phone they lose.

The only single time I had a contract, because it was the only way to get a Nokia N70, I learnt never to do another one ever again.

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necovek 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Are you sure it is your whole country or it's you?

I mostly buy my phones outright too, but I am under no impression that everybody else does it as well.

	▲	grishka 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		In my country, for example, buying phones from carriers as part of your plan just isn't a thing. As in, you couldn't do it even if you wanted to. Same for postpaid plans and contracts. As a result, quite a lot of people use the "I can't believe they could make and sell an entire phone at this price" Xiaomi and similar phones.
	▲	pjmlp 34 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The planet is full of such countries, it isn't only me.