"just price" indeed. In France there are incredible offers for Android phones (I got my Motorola Atrix for "free" back in september), whereas the prices of iPhones have doubled since the device opened itself to multiple operators, from 99€ for 16GB to 199€ for the same iPhone4 (with network plan) between december 2010 and december 2011.

We suffer from a strange case of illegal trust between our three main network providers (four if we include the big reseller Virgin) in France, and sadly we have a hard time to convince the authorities to act, since we don't have the concept of a class-action lawsuit in our system.

edit: typos

So are you implying that the operators (and perhaps Apple) are simply soaking their iPhone customers or just trying to promote Android phones because they're more lucrative (ie, lower cost, but same subscription cost)?

I'm just implying that when the entry price of your product doubles and competition undercuts you to death, it's no surprise your market share goes down - at least in France.

I'm also implying that maybe under Apple's pressure, maybe with their cooperation, maybe against their will, the various french mobile operators settled on a common price for the iPhone that is way higher than when Orange had a monopoly, which is illegal as far as I know.

"The French market is showing increasing signs of price sensitivity" really is an euphemism for "The French see what you did there, Orange, Bouygues Telecom & SFR". Android has nothing to do with it, really.

The same quote also mean just quality, since you get better phone for the same money you want to spend ;)

I understood that HTC is from the US banned until they change their product, but you may be right.

Anyways, it's much harder for any non US company to compete with Apple (and Motorola) on US market. Take an example of Nokia which was absolute smartphone leader everywhere in the world excluding US. HTC and Samsung are in the similar position.