Are one in three iPhones sold being unlocked?

[wraggster]

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.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/25/are-one-in-three-iphones-sold-being-unlocked/

[VampDude]

The quick answer is "YES"

Also, when the iPhone was first released in the States there was a lot of selling of the iPhone on eBay (and bought by people in other countries).

I think price has something to do with it, I took a picture of a stores door window on January 1st (I was planning on getting one at the time) and the price for the iPhone here in the UK is stupid (image below) which is why so many are bought from the States and unaccounted for (oh and unlocked).

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n304/vampdude/DSC03425-small.jpg (http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n304/vampdude/DSC03425-original_size.jpg)

[darkness angel 777]

yeah they are one in three...