Analyst: 10% of iPhones sold to unlockers

If you sell an iPhone on ebay, Ebay/Paypal scrutinize each sale so much to much freeze the funds and make sure the bidder/seller are both legit before they release the funds. I don't think it makes selling unlocked iphones on ebay an easy transaction.

Regardless of the exact number, this is still a percentage of customer Apple has obviously stated they don't want to begin with. It's like that piece by Mark Pilgrim that John Gruber linked:

http://diveintomark.org/archives/2007/10/04/if-wishes-were-iphones

Apple stated the iPhone does some things. It also stated the iPhone will never do some things, while also alluding that it might do a few thigns like 3rd party apps sooner or later in the future once they can figure out a way to *not* jeapordize the reliability and security of the iPhone.

All that said, the choice is simple: you either buy the iPHone for what it is, or you don't. But people who are buying the iPhone based on the *requirement* of having to hack it to do certain things are nuts. Just as nuts as the people with hacked or unlocked iPhones that updated to 1.1.1 after Apple's incredibly public and syndicated warning that things will break.

I agree with Mark - so 10% is more than likely unlocked for resale. What about the fraction of the other 90% who float around on forums like macrumors etc who do their unlock by themselves? I think that number simply indicates the percentage is def. greater than 10!

I agree with Mark - so 10% is more than likely unlocked for resale. What about the fraction of the other 90% who float around on forums like macrumors etc who do their unlock by themselves? I think that number simply indicates the percentage is def. greater than 10!

I think 10% is low. I bought 7 iPhones to sell in my country. There is a store that had 170 iPhones. They sold their first batch (20 iPhones) in less than a day for $1000.

Your logic is flawed.

Just because the current ratio is (approx.) 90/10, doesn't mean that everyone in the 90% is happy with AT&T or wouldn't have gone with another carrier had there been an Apple-sanctioned option or an Apple-unlocked phone.

Personally, I hate AT&T and would love to use another carrier -- but not at the risk of damaging/bricking my phone. Plenty of people in the 90% would be with other carriers if they had a *safe* option to do so. But for many of us, it's simply not worth the headache and risk of constantly hacking the phone, then having to avoid iPhone updates for fear of what might happen to our devices.

Many of us are simply more willing to "play by the rules" until there's a safer option.

If (when?) Apple finally releases an unlocked iPhone, watch that 90% *tumble* to a significantly lower number.

10% seems low. I read in some Asia newspapers that there are actually stores (typically small vendors) that have been selling unlocked iPhone to people (both hardware unlocked and software-unlocked versions, the former is cheaper), in places where iphone is not available. I am imagining that this must be happening all over the world. Not to mention, you don't HAVE TO stay with At&T for the whole two years - I have seen bloggers wrote about how to get out of the At&T contract to save money. Hence, 10% may just be a very conservative estimate.

Maybe Apple Did it To Keep AT&T Happy

Personally, I think Apple knows that selling unlocked phones is A Good Thing.

Although they don't get revenue from the AT&T revenue sharing deal, when a phone is sold to someone in Croatia or New Zealand, it's a bonus sale they wouldn't otherwise have had.

There is unlikely to be a network partner in those countries for a very long time, if ever, so the sale brings extra revenue and increases the unit count (which in these still early days of iPhone promotion is a very useful bragging metric).

Plus, once it leaves the country, the new owner doesn't expect warranty or support, reducing Apple's support costs. Nor would many of them have been able to claim the $100 credit from the $599 price drop.

However, their contract with AT&T / O2 / Deutsche Telecom forces them to publicly pretend unlocking is an abhorrent thing to them.

We should get a clearer picture when both companies - Apple and AT&T - report their Jul-Sep quarter results.

If they break out the number of units sold (Apple) versus the number of units activated (AT&T), then the difference will represent the unlockers.

Apple announced during September that it had reached the 1,000,000 mark. There was no corresponding announcement from AT&T, but the whisper was 600,000 activations.

That would suggest the 10% figure was on the low side.

Hopefully we'll know more in three weeks when the financials are out.