Mobile providers usually offer loans ("service contracts") where people get phones outside their financial standing (I regularly see high end iPhones and foldable phones of €1-2k run by people in a country where average monthly salary is less than €1k): if a highly visible device like your phone can be had for 10% of your monthly salary, people will, unfortunately, opt for it.

I tend to not use Apple not due to cost (I honestly believe it's OK to pay a premium for quality; I might disagree they offer it today though, as I do use a couple of their devices at work), but because of how closed their ecosystem is (and yes, all my personal devices are running some sort of Linux, and Android phones are rooted and with bootloader unlocked).

Many countries prefer the freedom of pre-pay/post-pay than being bound by contracts though.

Not everyone has the US culture of running their life on credit.

Because when life changes, it isn't only their phone they lose.

The only single time I had a contract, because it was the only way to get a Nokia N70, I learnt never to do another one ever again.

Are you sure it is your whole country or it's you?

I mostly buy my phones outright too, but I am under no impression that everybody else does it as well.

In my country, for example, buying phones from carriers as part of your plan just isn't a thing. As in, you couldn't do it even if you wanted to. Same for postpaid plans and contracts.

As a result, quite a lot of people use the "I can't believe they could make and sell an entire phone at this price" Xiaomi and similar phones.

Name the country if you want this to be a useful data point.

You could have checked their profile.

I'm not clicking the username of every commenter I read just to account for details they should've put in the comment.

Well too bad, otherwise you would have found it quicker than the time it took to write two comments.

Nah, the comments I'm responding to don't really take that much effort. ;P

The planet is full of such countries, it isn't only me.

I've only seen the carrier locked phones and long-term contracts in a handful of countries. I've lived in a lot of countries on three continents.

In many places the default is prepaid SIMs with separately purchased phones. Sometimes the prepaying can be automated (e.g. in Russia), sometimes it involves you physically going to a shop once a month or so (e.g. in Egypt).

This is one of Apple's marketing strategy.

Faux luxury.

Totally works in the US too on teens, moms, and lower middle class people.

It's getting to French teens unfortunately.

They'll make fun of the kid who has a Galaxy S24 while proudly showing off their aging iPhone 12...