iPhone’s gray market isn’t black and white

We know that lots and lots of phones are being sold that aren’t used on Apple’s partners’ networks, and we furthermore know that these phones are being spread all over the world. BusinessWeek’s Peter Burrows takes a look at the gray market of iPhones: handsets that are bought from Apple and then resold to users elsewhere.

Burrows’s article looks at a number of ways that resellers get the iPhones: convincing friends and family to buy up to the limit of phones, using flight attendants to get the phones from the US to other countries, or taking advantage of returned phones. He also spends some time looking at some of the unlocking attempts that make the gray market possible.

All in all, it’s an interesting look at this industry that’s grown up around the restrictions that Apple and its partners have put into place, even correctly pointing out that while unlocking may lose Apple’s partners some money by allowing users a choice, most of the gray market sales are happening in places where you simply can’t legitimately get an iPhone.

If nothing else, the volume of this market shows that the iPhone is so popular that people are willing to buy it even knowing that they’ll have to undergo a technical and potentially risky procedure just to use the thing. That’s dedication.

Category: News

Posted by Dan Moren on Feb 12 2008, 12:04 PM ET

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