Of course, most of those phones were probably not sold for use in the United States, so that profit is not really lost. Instead, selling those extra 250,000 phones could be looked at as $100 million in sales that they wouldn't have had otherwise. If the unlocking tools never existed, people would likely just not have purchased phones at all - not affecting the AT&T subscriber numbers one bit.

How many millions? No wonder Apple bricked those iPhones.

"that’s a substantial amount of potential cash that Apple is losing out on—possibly as much as $130 million in profits."

This is the kind of flawed reasoning the music industry loves to use too...

Not only are many of them sold in other countries as the above commenter mentioned, but undoubtedly some or many of the ones sold in the States went to people who wouldn't have bought an iPhone if they were forced to switch to AT&T. Given that Apple makes a significant profit just on the phone itself, it's conceivable that Apple is better off allowing phones to be unlocked with just enough difficulty that most people just go with AT&T.

And I'm missing where that $130 million figure comes from. $432 for each of 250,000 phones is $108 million.

I think that Apple is crossing the line a little with the iphone... Does anything go in order to increase the profit?

I agree. Tha's $130 mill if phones weren't unlockable. I know i wouldn't buy it, if it meant switching to att. i praise thee unlockers...