Victek said:
Regarding the upgrade fee, when did it become an industry standard? I can remember not paying an upgrade fee in the not too distant past.

It became a standard practice with the advent of fun-to-use smartphones, though not everyone adopted the policy at the same time. More particularly, it's a result of massive numbers of people returning newly purchased smartphones for refund or exchange.

By adopting the practice of adding a "fee" to the purchase, the carriers make a certain portion of the purchase price non-refundable without actually "raising" the price of the phone.

This is why they haven't just raised the price of all the phones by $30 and calling it all part of the "hardware cost" (well, that and marketing insisting that $199 is the magic price point).