[cliceperperIa]

A phone is never an investment dude.

Slightly disagree.

In the US the phones are heavily subsidized by the 2 year contract you sign when you switch to it.

I am sure you are aware of this but I will post this link for others who want to learn more about how this actually works:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/09/...hone-contract/

So, for your 2 year contract you get to pay only $0 - $200 upfront for a phone that "actually retails" for around $200 - $600

Then after you are done with your new contract most people usually go to get another new phone along with a good discount and another 2 year contract.

The key is that your old phone may still be valuable to you or worth a decent amount of money on the secondary market.

Example, 2 years ago you maybe paid $200 for an iphone 3Gs and a 2 year contract. 2 years later you sign a new contract for an iPhone 4s and it now costs $200 with a 2 year contract, but surprisingly when you go to sell your old 3Gs on craigslist or ebay you will find that the old 3gs in good condition still sells for $120-150.

So in theory in some situations you can actually sell a used phone 2 years after buying it for more than you paid for it at the moment you signed the contract.



My phone is an HTC Inspire, I have had it for 1 year, I love it.
My work paid for it and I have unlimited data.
Primarily I use it for work emails and non-work media
secondarily I use it as an actual phone.
In 1 more year I will get another new work phone and at that point I look forward to being able to continue to use my current HTC Inspire as a web browser, game player, and media device.
Not that I myself paid for it but when the contract was signed this phone cost $100 upfront. They currently sell used for $200 and up.



On one hand you can claim that because of the monthly bill you are not "making a profit" if you sell a phone 2 years after you get it, but on the other hand since the monthly charge does not get any lower after the phone is fully "paid off" 2 years later it is hard to claim the monthly service bill is directly part of the hardware cost.