You misunderstand me. The prices of high-end smartphones are the result of market pressures, not carrier policy. But the market pressure is, primarily, between the manufacturers and carriers; not the manufacturers and consumers. Carriers would like to pay less, obviously, but they make so much money by keeping people on expensive contracts that the market prices the phones where they are.

They prices of high-end smartphones have virtually unchanged in years, where the price of mid-range and low-end phones have plummeted. My assertion is that the reason for this is that high-end phones aren't targeted at consumers.