Re:Why and how (Score 1)

US consumers view cell phones as portable phones. Japanese and Korean consumers view cell phones as integrated communication devices. Because of this, US consumers (by and large) have no desire to spend $500-$1000 per phone and would prefer the low end crappy phones that all carriers give out for free with a 1-2 year service agreement.

Because so few US consumers want the high-end phones, there is no purpose in mass producing the phones for the US market because the vendors wouldn't have enough customers to recoup their costs.

The markets for cell phones are completely different in the US and Japan. Currently, US consumers are far more price concious in cell phone purchases than the consumers in Japan or Korea.