What needs to happen is cell phone provider companies (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile etc.) do away with contracts altogether (no strings attached), eliminating the "guaranteed and free" upgrade every two years.
You hit the head on the nail though. These handy, dandy gadgets, which have been around 10+ years now have no excuse to still be as spendy as they are. Eliminating contracts would force companies to be more competitive, therefore producing greater quality devices that actually have a better life span. I would also presume that if aid competition were in place, the current price you see on most phones now would probably be cut in half.
That's a lot of money just to repair a phone. I know that here, a brand new smartphone at retail price typically costs around $600-$800 here (or 2000=2500 Reals).
Depends on the model and brand of phone you get. Unlike iOS, Android is home to multiple brands, not just Samsung. I have an LG phone that's done me quite well thus far (almost two years). LG products in general always last a long time from my experiences. HTC iss another Android-based phone to take note of.