Return it to an Apple store? Apple knows who to contact.

I know Apple doesn’t really have the financial incentive for this, but some kind of prepaid mailing label you could print and use for this would be an option if there’s not a nearby Apple store.

And if there is no Apple Store around? There are entire countries without those, and even more that only have a few total.

Most countries, including mine or the ones I'm likely to travel to, don't have Apple Stores.

If my phone gets stolen from my pocket in the US, the chance of it wandering to the third world and then a Good Samaritan trying to give it back seem abysmal.

But what if you don't live in the US. You actually live in a "third world" country?

These are the type of things that make it very hard for Apple to penetrate markets outside the US.

What we're discussing: you can put any message you want on the phone for how it can be returned to you.

Some people are mentioning that if Apple is given the phone, Apple will also help (and that they'd prefer to not put that message in place as a result).

> These are the type of things that make it very hard for Apple to penetrate markets outside the US.

Can you explain how this is much worse than, say, Google or Samsung?

> Some people are mentioning that if Apple is given the phone, Apple will also help

No, they will not. It is just a wish. And it makes little sense for Apple to be doing that.

If you bring a found iPhone to Apple, Apple will not tell you any information about the associated customer. They don't have any infrastructure to return it. The only thing they can and will do is take the device and recycle it.