And that should be no surprise.

The tendency is to demonise North Korea with little or no knowledge of the country - just because it is ego-boosting to feel superior - while glorifying the USA. You highlighted communism, so the reverse comparison to capitalism was begging to be made.

For many people, the USA appears just as broken North Korea - albeit in different ways ...

Since prison camps seem to keep coming up, lets try some prison stats from Wikipedia:
- The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. At year-end 2009, it was 743 adults incarcerated per 100,000 population
- In total, 7,225,800 adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2009 – about 3.1% of adults in the U.S. resident population

As for this comment:

How ignorant is that ...

Firstly, why do you think people need modern technology to communicate given people managed to communicate without for millennia

Secondly, why do you think there is no modern technology at all?
- roughly 10% of population have fixed line telephony and that low numbers is due to poverty not technology limits ...
- in fact, around 5% of the population also 3G cellular services (obviously not the interent!)
- about 10-15% of the population has access to computers predominantly for education and work

Yes - they are politically repressive and very poor .. and i would not to live there ... but then I also find the fanatical religious, war-mongering, 'me first - screw you' attitude of the USA unbearable as well ;-)

Way to play up the stereotypes - little too much cold war propaganda me thinks !

Yes - in North Korean that would be culturally offensive but the exaggeration is a bit over the top.

Personally I'd travel to North Korea before I ever travelled to the US again. Batshit Crazy comes in many forms !

Try flying into any major US city as a foreigner (even as a white westerner) and you might be ready to re-board the plane before even getting out of the airport.

LAX holds a special place in my heart as being about as welcoming as any third-world dictatorship !

More complete ignorance ...

North Korea has 3G networks covering more than 90% of the population.

However, given the general poverty and rural lifestyle, market penetration is only around 5% and that is predominantly limited to the educated/employed population in major cities. External internet is not available but 3G telephony certainly is.

and all the time I thought a data warehouse was a warehouse for data and could be used for more than just data mining ... damn those marketers for fooling me !

Even worse ... that $195B is based on potential cost to get the equivalent water and minerals into space

There is currently no demand for it for water for fuel or mineral for in-space construction ... so it has a theoretical $195B avoided supply cost and actual $0B demand value ...

Current value on that basis = $0 !

Most of the software with big differences is commercial stuff sold through distributors, resellers or local sales/marketing staff - it costs money to have that network. And both Microsoft & Apple certainly do have local operations, particularly in the corporate space.

Now for someone like EA selling games I could understand your argument - but they are not the type of companies in question

Tyres at $900 each are obviously at the very premium/niche end of the market - either high-performance or unusual size (or both!) .. I have the same experience ... In fact, that is about as niche as you can get without trying to get Pirellis P-Zeros for your Gallardo (or equiv sports car scenario)

Sad reality is they just don't sell enough to be economical but instead of not offering them at all, they make them reflective of the actual costs.

Your typical Commodore/Falcon or small hatchback tyres are basically the same price as the US and recall that we pay substantially higher wages all the way through the supply chain and have higher overheads like property costs for warehouse, transporting tyres, etc

Depends which "they" you are referring to ???

Apple and Microsoft certainly have large operations in Australia but would still wouldn't push through many copies of niche products.

I don't know about Adobe however - they certainly have corporate offices here.

Smaller market = higher overheads

There are still support, distribution costs and compliance costs associated with having a local operation - only a fully online model alleviates that and even then time zone issues imply potential for increased costs

To some extent, digital distribution and limited local support brings these costs down - the perfect example is Apple whose products are now more or lineball with US markets thanks to digital distribution of software, useless tech support and enough volume to compare to US stores for sales and basic support overheads.

High cost, low volume products will always have a premium (or at least an argument to made that this is the case with enough spin even it's not the case in reality) ...

There is NOTHING this committee can do to prove otherwise !!!

No great trick given there only a dozen or so integers that produce 4 digit results ... some basic gut feel for a cubic function will get you pretty close every time.

How does that logic hold?

I lose my wallet in the street but because my income for the year is still net positive I didn't actually lose anything after all?

Don't think so - a loss is a loss even is the long term impact is just less profit.

Now - whether there was a $5M loss - that is a whole different question ;-)

huh?

I was suggesting what I'd do in the OP's situation ie worried about network lock-in ...

If network and eco-system lock-in were both a concern, then you move onto a Google Nexus or potentially even a Nokia depending on your world view.

Really, a phone is just a phone - just find the one that best suits and move on - it shouldn't define who you are nor cause the amount of distress it seems to cause some people

Of course you do ... everyone does .. and switch to a cheaper local network to where it suits

But you also like the subsidised handset upfront ...

It is pick one-or-the-other in this case.

I do agree its unfortunate that some phone are not offered unsubsidised/unlocked or that some networks do not have 'bring your own phone' / un-contracted plans ... most other countries have evolved well past this behavior long ago

How do you want to proceed? You bought a phone that is locked to Sprint ... It is still locked to Sprint

Personally, I would be buying an unlocked phone and if Samsung does not make them available, then Samsung would lose my business to Apple.