There's an interesting editorial by Chris Ziegler over on Engadget today, pointing out to its USA readership that the current carrier pricing strategy really doesn't make sense anymore, with European carriers showing the way, pricing all phones at free on contract, with just the monthly amount changing. Nice insight for Americans, though it's a pity there's no mention of the even more radical way of buying smartphones - SIM-free. A few more thoughts below.

As Chris points out, the initial purchase price is rather irrelevant in a contract context, with the total cost of ownership of the phone (in extreme cases) sometimes exceeding $3000 by the end of your 24 month contract. So $100 might as well be $0 up front.

But the other big take Americans could get from us Europeans is that there's another way, one that is almost unheard of in the carrier-dominated USA. Rather than buy a phone on contract for 'free+£35/month for 24 months', which works out at £840 all in, you can buy the same phone for £350-SIM free and then add on a pay-as-you-go SIM and data rolling-monthly-allowance (from £10/month for unlimited data if you shop around), meaning that even with quite a bit of Internet use, you might save 30% or more on the contract-inclusive price.

The situation's certainly not cut and dried - if you're a heavy talker or texter than a contract still makes sense. But I fail to see why more people don't talk about the attractions of not having a contract at all.

And gaining the advantages of no carrier branding/crippling, faster access to firmware updates, freedom to sell whenever you like, and so on.

Just another viewpoint! Maybe an American reader can give us a pay-as-you-go perspective - am I missing something?