[whalesalad]

I think this perspective might help a bit: Think about the average person purchasing a handful of applications for a couple of dollars each (My girlfriend has probably spent a maximum of $20 on apps for her iPhone), with a smaller portion of that money actually making it into Apple's pocket (costs for operating the app store service itself as well as the people who approve and manage apps, paying developers their portion, etc...) versus a couple of hundred dollars per device. An iPhone without a contract is even crazier, take the subsidized AT&T price and add $400. The app store is the biggest reason why people want the devices, but I can see how it's not the reason for the devices.

Just looking at my Android phone (I previously had an iPhone and got bored with it) I have three applications for Facebook and all of them don't even do 20% of what the iPhone one does. I get so frustrated with my device now that I'm considering dishing out cash money ($699) to buy a new one and stick with my T-Mobile plan.