Are one in three iPhones sold being unlocked?
By Donald Melanson 
posted Jan 25th 2008 11:28AM
posted Jan 25th 2008 11:28AM
While it likely won't come as much of a surprise to those reading this, it seems that Apple's recently released iPhone sales numbers and AT&T's customer number don't exactly match up, leading those ever so insightful analysts to conclude that many of the phones are being sold with the sole intention of being unlocked. What is somewhat surprising, however, is exactly how many phones that might be. As MacWorld reports, Apple says it sold 3.7 million iPhones in 2007, while AT&T says it signed up about two million or so iPhone customers during the same time period. While those aforementioned analysts point out that Apple's numbers were boosted by 300,000-400,000 sales in Europe, and likely a few sold over the holidays that were yet to be activated, that still leaves over a million iPhones running free out there. If you do the math, that seems to suggest that roughly one in three iPhones sold are being unlocked although, obviously, we're not about to get a confirmation on that number from anyone.
I think this just shows to Apple that we don't won't our iPhones locked.
ya,,, if they'd be more competitive there would not be such a lucrative iPhone unlock market... check out these x-sim turbo iPhone Unlock cards... only $36.99 for lot of 5... for US, UK, Europe ... http://www.chinagrabber.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1533
you forgot to include the folks that already have AT&T and bought an iPhone to use on AT&T.
those aren't new customers but those aren't a trivial amount, either.
I honestly think Apple doesen't care.
If I were Apple and i REALLY wanted iPhone exclusivity I would only sell iPhones with the 2yr contract upfront.
You would have to sign first then get the phone. They could also raise the early cancellation cost.
I'm still waiting for iPhone 2. Hope it will be what i'm expecting.
JON: It says AT&T signed up 2 million iPhone customers, not 2 million iPhone customers with new service. Give then very unique and specific way that AT&T customers had to activate the iPhone, I'm guessing that number refers to all iPhones, not just new acts.
PLH2034: Apple absolutely cares. Remember, not only do they get a percentage of each iPhone sold, they also get residuals from each activation AND the data plans. If there are 1 million iPhones that they're not getting that from, that's a pretty significant amount.
By the way, wouldn't this be closer to 1 out of 4 than 1 out of 3?
The difference probably has to do with who's counting. When I worked at Sprint, the manufacturer and company sales figures never lined up b/c the manufacturer counted "shipments" and the carrier counted activations. So, Apple may be counting the inventory that's sitting on the shelves of AT&T stores, while AT&T is only counting actual activations.