michaeljtimko wrote: 4) This is tied to three, but if three is unpalatble, then Verizon could offer special upgrade options like ATT has done with the iPhone.  I have a line that will upgrade in October.  I called Big Red Customer Dis-Service to see if they would be willing to work with a long standing customer to get him to buy the new Galaxy S3.  I was told flat out the upgrade dates are the upgrade dates.  I thought Verizon was in the business to make money.  They could have made $249 off the sale and two more years on that line for an additional $240.  Would it really hurt Verizon to come to us and say, hey you got six months left on this contract.  We will let you upgrade early.

i hear what you're saying, but they allow an upgrade at 20 months. if they started letting us upgrade 6 months prior to that, then you're really talking about a one year contract. it would be nice. but they subsidize $400-500 in many cases, based on getting those fees for at least 20 months...not 14. and as far as a one year contract goes, if it was still going to be $400, then i would just pay the $600-700 in order to remain out of contract. they do need to figure something out though, because you are correct about smartphones. i can't hardly imagine keeping the same one for 2+ years. i'm hoping that, much like pc's, the actual price of them will come down. if the high end devices retailed at around $400, then many of us would likely just buy the devices and forget about contracts (like they do in europe)