Italy seems to be the smartphones' paradise - even if I don't see a particular engagement by producers, including Nokia, in studying us or giving us something new.
Maybe 'cause we're saturated already:


Source here.

World ends to those countries?

Title amended

Well one explaining factor could be that in Italy it is illegal to sell operator or sim-locked devices and demand compulsory contracts to tie the customer to a operator for a period of time.

I think its quite common that high-end devices are purchased through contracts, but suppose that in Italy this isn't the case. Maybe the biggest competition is between stores selling these devices "free".

EDIT: OK no, I stand corrected. Here's how it works specifically:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock#Italy

I think that this makes buying these smartphones on contract a bit more enticing.

AFAICS the "sources" don't define what makes a "smartphone". A common misconception in North America seems to be that the iphone was the first smartphone. I find it hard to believe that with all the S60v3 devices out there that Europe has a lower smartphone penetration than the US.

Looking through the source articles, they do seem to imply that subsidization is what is driving smartphone penetration in the US. I would need to see more of the source data to be sure, but intuitively that would make some sense: while Europe would likely have a head start on the US in terms of acceptance of the smartphone concept, the American model of deep subsidization will lend itself to a faster rate of smartphone adoption in the US because most Americans who do buy smartphones pay deeply discounted prices for them

In exchange for your freedom, you get a nicely spec'd smartphone for $100 (which is what my wife paid for her Droid 2). That's an exchange a lot of Americans don't mind making.