“Missing” iPhones are taking over the world
The other day, we talked about everybody’s favorite mystery: what happened to all those iPhones that Apple says they’ve sold, but which AT&T hasn’t activated? The consensus seems to be that these phones are being unlocked and emigrating from the US to countries where the carriers don’t yet have deals with Apple.
At this point, the evidence is pretty much anecdotal, but that doesn’t make it any less compelling. Over at the New York Times’s Bits blog, Damon Darlin has posted an extensive list of comments from readers that report iPhones being used and sold in more than a dozen countries around the world, from Canada to Uganda and almost everywhere in between.
Does this mean terrible things for Apple? Speculation has long been that Apple gets a cut of the carriers’ incomes per subscriber, so some have suggested that the “missing” iPhones could mean millions in lost revenue for Apple.
That’s hardly true, though, as ITWire’s Stephen Withers rightly points out:
There’s no suggestion that iPhones are in short supply, so you can’t argue that each one that moves across the borders denies Apple the revenue it would have received indirectly from a customer in the country where it was originally sold.It’s not as if those purchasing the iPhone for use in other countries are some how depriving users in France, Germany, the UK, or the US of iPhones. In fact, the very point we’re arguing seems to say the iPhones are plentiful: if they weren’t being bought by others around the world, they probably just wouldn’t be bought. And since Apple obviously makes good money on each iPhone sold, whether or not the iPhone is activated through a partner, it’s not as if they’re losing money. Rather, the money they get from the carriers is just icing on a delicious and profitable cake.
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Comments (5)
Finally someone with common sense !, those iPhone ARE out There (out of the U.S.) everyone has one !! and they pour like rain in our countries and Apple is making Huge amounts of money with them.
Drop the dam Carrier deals, Apple would benefit more from selling an unlocked iPhone worldwide !, I could careless for visual voicemail...Since I gave one to my wife, I have not heard anythingelse but "It is the best present I have erver gotten in my life" pretty much sums it up comming from a housewife that uses the device 10 times more as an iPodTouch than a phone..stays in touch with everyone, everywhere easely.
Stop the stupid carrier bundling, let worldwide consumers GET the iPhone easely..if you don't, it will always be unlocked and hacked anyways...
SO learn from abroad...
Posted by RG | January 29, 2008 6:07 PM
I recently visited Hanoi where a big sign outside a shop offered
'completely unlocked' iPhones for sale.
I live in the Philippines and there seem plenty of them around,
people order them by mailorder from the US either ready hacked or
they have them unlocked here.
As far as I hear they are available all over Asia.
Posted by C. Roma | January 29, 2008 7:30 PM
I bet majority of the "unaccounted for" phones stay in the US, France, Germany and the UK. They might even be used with the same carrier only without the contract. These people would get the contract if they were forced to in the first place. Just take a look at UK ebay - there's hundreds of "O2 only" phones and they sell well despite the premium over the regular price.
Still, as you wrote, there are people like me, who live in a different country, passed the activation, jailbroke and unlocked the phone. But while there's lots of us, I doubt we are as many as it is suggested here.
Posted by rafalski | January 30, 2008 5:07 AM
No, no, no. We have established the correct accounting standards and terminology in dealing with stolen music, movies, and software. You take the number of unlocked phones, multiply by the amount of money Apple collects per anum, throw in a fudge factor of about 10 (an order of magnitude) and refer to it as "damages."
Posted by David Oglesby | January 30, 2008 4:45 PM
When giving presentations in Canada to Canadians an average of 10% of attendees hold up their iPhones when asked. This happens from Vancouver to Toronto all unlocked. Apple is not losing out and what are we all going to do when Apple has a deal with a local carrier? Move like sheep to that carrier. So, how will that activation process work? Go to iTunes and activate an existing account. If Apple can negotiate revenue from existing accounts all the power to them. If they can't, they got all the revenue they were going to get anyway.
Posted by TD | January 30, 2008 6:45 PM