Except mobile phone service isn't hardware. Yes Apple charges a premium for hardware (including accessories) but they don't for services or a lot of their software.The way Apple works is... They will lease the capacity at same or higher rates and then FORCE iPhone users to purchase and use their network at a premium.
They do this will many of their markets, including Macs. For example, they charge you $300 for 16GB of RAM ($90 in real world). How do they do that? They solder the RAM so you have to buy from them and if you want to upgrade, you have to buy a NEW product from them.
I have been a diehard Apple/OSX user for as long as I can remember. I am so sick of this, I am typing this from a Windows 10 system.