[WillPostForFood]

Even into 1982 most people were still renting their phones from the phone company:

Exactly! You had to. 1982 is a very relevant year, the last year before AT&T was broken up. People did want to own their phones, and they wanted choice, and they wanted fun weird phones, or cheap phones, or whatever. Monopoly quashed that.

From 1960 -> 1980 phones barely changed. Compare that to the changes from

[Retric]

You seem to misunderstand, this is months after the breakup and people still rented the phone. It stopped so quickly because the practice was literally banned by the FTC.

It seems strange today that people would rent phones, but they used to be very expensive items even outside the US. The practice ended because prices fell so far not because people’s preferences changed.

[WillPostForFood]

practice ended because prices fell so far not because people’s preferences changed.

As if prices aren't a part of preference? As if innovation isn't lowering costs? That alone torpedoes your claim - why wasn't AT&T innovating on lowering prices? Obviously because they were a monopoly and how no incentive.

What you you may not know, is that people didn't switch from renting to buying the same boring phones, the market exploded with phone options. Where was the AT&T cordless phone pre-1982?