[Retric]

You don't get competition on day one, and one week of 8000x prices is worth more than 10 years of 1x prices. However, you can and will drop prices when competition shows up, so you see 8000x profits when competitors see a competitive market.

[notyourday]

neither AT&T nor Samsung were able to do it against MCI or Vizio. But, sure, lets pretend it is different this time.

[Retric]

AT&T did not have a total monopoly and the ability to charge 8000x prices. Remember the drug company is already ahead even if they never sell this drug again. That's not true of less extreme price increases.

[jsjohnst]

During the days where MCI had a pronounced savings over AT&T (aka mid to late 90s), it was only 5-6x difference [0]. Based on that, I agree, totally different ball game with pharmaceuticals (like 3 orders of magnitude difference).

[0] Source: I worked for MCI during that era. When we were selling flat rate 10¢/min, most of the folks we talked to were paying 40-60¢/min with AT&T for intra and inter-lata calls. Folks thought the price was so low that there was some hidden charge or it was some kind of scam. Of course AT&T (pre-SBC acquisition) responded and dropped their prices, but they took a long time to do it.