AfterDawn: News

Analysts estimate a million unlocked iPhones in the U.S.

A recent announcement from Apple regarding iPhone sales stirred up contreversy due to much lower numbers being activated for use with AT&T's wireless network. With a discrepency of nearly 1.5 million phones it's easy to see why people would be interested in the reason. According to analysts at Bernstein Reasearch, nearly a third of the phones are in AT&T's hands waiting to be sold. That leaves around 1 million, which are believed to be unlocked to work on networks other than AT&T.

Although neither Apple nor AT&T have had any comment on the analysts' estimates, it's clearly not something either company is happy with. As the only official network for iPhones in the U.S., AT&T splits fees collected for them with Apple. Every phone on a different provider's network is lost revenue for both companies.



"Besides the financial implications, we believe the prevalence of unlocked iPhones presents a significant strategic dilemma to Apple," Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi wrote.

Although many analysts had previously estimated the number of iPhones operating on "unauthorized" networks at around 20%, if these new figures are accurate it's closer to 30%. That means in order to reach the amount of revenue originally expected for the 10 million iPods Apple has consistently projected they'll sell by the end of this year they might have to sell closer to 12 million.

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 28 Jan 2008 23:12

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• 35 comments

• jetyi83

  good news. i hate apple

  28.1.2008 23:43 #1

• orion250

  Excellent!!! I don't like Apple either and AT&T sucks! Many years ago, AT&T was royally screwing their customers and they got busted for it. I have never had AT&T nor will I ever use them because of that. Glad to see the little guy screwing them for a change!

  29.1.2008 00:06 #2

• shummyr

  About time they are off at&t exclusivly there a rip off
  
  Shummyr

  29.1.2008 01:34 #3

• dsgtrain

  Originally posted by jetyi83: good news. i hate apple
  Simple and True! ALL Apple products are over priced and people who buy iPod's have got no imagination.
  
  Dave!

  29.1.2008 04:38 #4

• DILLY03

  Well what did they expect...!

  29.1.2008 04:45 #5

• SamNz

  Quote:Originally posted by jetyi83: good news. i hate apple
  Simple and True! ALL Apple products are over priced and people who buy iPod's have got no imagination.
  
  Dave! ill second that, one line says it all

  29.1.2008 06:04 #6

• 21Q

  Honestly, I like Apple products. They are very innovative and good for multimedia. But I still can't figure out how to run a .tar. They many be pricey but they are a company competing against everyone else. Microsoft is no different in their business. AT&T also isn't bad. I was with cingular until the merge and I haven't felt any different about my service. Unless you've used a product it's not right to judge.

  29.1.2008 07:19 #7

• maryjayne

  Those numbers can easily be incorrect. Every time I purchase a phone I make sure it is either unlocked or unlockable. I refuse to get into another 1-2 year service agreement just because my phone either fails to work or I find another phone that I want. Despite purchasing an unlocked phone, I still stick with the same network; however, I do not notify ATT of the change. Since they are not notified, they can assume the phone is not activated through them. I am sure there are dozens of others like myself that want new equipment but dont want to commit to another annual service agreement.

  29.1.2008 07:27 #8

• ZippyDSM

  The trouble with exclusive deals with phone makers and service providers is it screws the consumer out of shopping for a better plan...

  29.1.2008 08:13 #9

• red2tango

  AT&T is running a monopoly by buying everyone.yet americans buy their shit even though you guys are so patriotic,too bad they charge your troops 3 dollars per minute in iraq.your whole country is corrupt.

  29.1.2008 11:20 #10

• StanH1000

  Of all the cellphone providers in the Phoenix area, ATT (Cingular) was the worst for me. I've tried them all over the last 16 years. ATT/Cingular wouldn't even work at my home. 40% of all calls I made or received were dropped. Their service was good when I roamed out of state or even to Tucson, but was abysmal in Phoenix. I endured with a family plan for two years, then gleefully changed carriers.
  If I would've had access to UNLOCKED I Phone, I prob would've bought one! Instead I went with a CDMA carrier.

  29.1.2008 11:36 #11

• ikari

  I can understand these companies being upset, but they should have known that this was going to happen.
  
  And on the off topic comments about apple: I don't have apple and may never will, however, they have made products that try to push up the standards for products like mp3 players and cell phones. That benefits you with better products with more features. I for one thank them.

  29.1.2008 15:05 #12

• Poseidon5

  Originally posted by red2tango: AT&T is running a monopoly by buying everyone
  Get your facts straight. AT&T bought Cingular, NOT APPLE. And Cingular had to agree to it in order for it to happen, so it was done with CONSENT. Verizon, Alltel, T-Mobile, Net10, Tracfone, BoostMobile, Virgin Mobile, Sprint, etc. are still independant. And a monopoly means ONE SELLER - learn the dictionary definition first before using words you don't know. If you can only get a product from *one* outlet, that is the monopoly. If you have a choice, *any* other choice, you do not have a monopoly. Apple is a monopoly where you can only buy Apple PCs from their stores and you can only use the Apple OS on an Apple PC. It was Apple's decision to only have AT&T as the provider of phone service, NOT AT&T.
  
  Originally posted by red2tango: yet americans buy their shit even though you guys are so patriotic
  First of all, I hate Apple. But Apple is an AMERICAN company. AT&T is also an AMERICAN company. So both suck to me, but they are both AMERICAN and NOT foreign. Therefore it IS patriotic to buy Apple & AT&T products - although their political agendas may be socialist (in my opinion) - but you are helping the US economy regardless. And since YOU said "you guys are so...," I am assuming you are a FOREIGNER who is, as the rest of the world that criticizes with no basis, JEALOUS of the U.S. Do you want me to buy your Kyocera/Sony/Ericcson/Nokia/LG/Samsung phone? No - keep YOUR shit to yourself. I am a MOTOROLA fan.
  
  Originally posted by red2tango: too bad they charge your troops 3 dollars per minute in iraq
  Any service provided comes at a cost - do you expect them to charge 50 cents a minute and the government fork the rest of the bill? Since you are FOREIGN to politics I'll inform you that NOTHING IS FREE - AND GOVERNMENTS GET MONEY FROM *CITIZENS.* So that means I will be footing the bill instead of the caller. By the way, it is illegal for the government to regulate the cost of tolls. And also, it is *NOT* 3-dollars-a-minute. Plus, I don't believe AT&T operates in Iraq. So your argument has absolutely no basis.
  
  Originally posted by red2tango: your whole country is corrupt.
  No, *your country* is corrupt.
  
  The US government is not flawless, and it has many corrupt officials, but the government as a whole is the least corrupt IN THE WORLD.

  29.1.2008 15:54 #13

• Berge

  Just couldn’t resist commenting
  
  Quote: AT&T is running a monopoly by buying everyone.yet americans buy their shit even though you guys are so patriotic,too bad they charge your troops 3 dollars per minute in iraq.your whole country is corrupt. We all know that any government is not without its corruption. But I’d love to hear what country you’re from and we definitely could have a nice chat about your governments history and all of the righteous things they’ve done.
  
  As a government, being around for just over 230 years, we’ve got some ugly spots but trust me, nothing compared to what any older countries history has in its closet. Shall we take this to the safety valve?

  29.1.2008 16:10 #14

• Berge

  "FUAD",
  
  You sound angry... I'd suggest not posting, taking it to safety valve or going to see a therapist for whatever happend in your youth/marriage/relationship/work... whatever it may be.
  
  Chill!

  29.1.2008 16:30 #15

• schweaty

  Apple stinks!
  
  Good to know AD censored that angry dufus.
  
  Apple still stinks!

  29.1.2008 17:02 #16

• ddp

  schweaty, lightning struck!!!
  schweaty (account created on 29 Jan, 2008) has used same IP address as banned2X (banned on 23 Jan, 2008)
  schweaty (account created on 29 Jan, 2008) has used same IP address as banned3x (banned on 23 Jan, 2008)
  schweaty (account created on 29 Jan, 2008) has used same IP address as banned4x (banned on 23 Jan, 2008)
  schweaty (account created on 29 Jan, 2008) has used same IP address as banned4gd (banned on 25 Jan, 2008)
  schweaty (account created on 29 Jan, 2008) has used same IP address as banned4Lf (banned on 29 Jan, 2008)
  schweaty (account created on 29 Jan, 2008) has used same IP address as FuckOffAD (banned on 29 Jan, 2008)

  29.1.2008 19:31 #17

• mesa101

  Poseidon5,,,
  
  well said, took the words right out of my mouth.

  29.1.2008 22:43 #18

• ripxrush

  haha apple playign with the big boys & havign to deal with hacks & mods! lol! just ask M$ about there xbox and Sony about there Playstations! they know the drill!
  Apple has always had issues with there products but no one ever knows about it due to the few % or people with the machines! well now that apple is getting mroe customers theye are having more issues that they never told anyone about! Mack os has more security issues than VISTA!

  29.1.2008 23:43 #19

• DoomLight

  i wanna be an analyst. people think my opinion based on nothing matters :-D
  
  who cares. the iphone is a too delicate and slippery. water sticks to your hands better!

  29.1.2008 23:51 #20

• jetyi83

  Quote:Originally posted by red2tango: AT&T is running a monopoly by buying everyone
  Get your facts straight. AT&T bought Cingular, NOT APPLE. And Cingular had to agree to it in order for it to happen, so it was done with CONSENT. Verizon, Alltel, T-Mobile, Net10, Tracfone, BoostMobile, Virgin Mobile, Sprint, etc. are still independant. And a monopoly means ONE SELLER - learn the dictionary definition first before using words you don't know. If you can only get a product from *one* outlet, that is the monopoly. If you have a choice, *any* other choice, you do not have a monopoly. Apple is a monopoly where you can only buy Apple PCs from their stores and you can only use the Apple OS on an Apple PC. It was Apple's decision to only have AT&T as the provider of phone service, NOT AT&T.you need a course in economics

  30.1.2008 16:01 #21

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by red2tango: AT&T is running a monopoly by buying everyone
  Get your facts straight. AT&T bought Cingular, NOT APPLE. And Cingular had to agree to it in order for it to happen, so it was done with CONSENT. Verizon, Alltel, T-Mobile, Net10, Tracfone, BoostMobile, Virgin Mobile, Sprint, etc. are still independant. And a monopoly means ONE SELLER - learn the dictionary definition first before using words you don't know. If you can only get a product from *one* outlet, that is the monopoly. If you have a choice, *any* other choice, you do not have a monopoly. Apple is a monopoly where you can only buy Apple PCs from their stores and you can only use the Apple OS on an Apple PC. It was Apple's decision to only have AT&T as the provider of phone service, NOT AT&T.you need a course in economicsBuy outs can happen in 3 ways a hostile takeover to plunder a company via "buying out" the stock holders one way or another, by absorbsion through a merger or by one company just giving up and selling off what remains.
  
  AT&T and comcasts tactics are low but it is what you get when the very regulation that is suppose to protect consuemrs only creates more messes.
  
  Don't blame the companies for the loopholes or cracks in the law/egulation... its like blaming a vampire for liking blood.

  30.1.2008 16:11 #22

• bogwart16

  Poseidon5, I'm very grateful to you. For a variety of reasons I've had a crappy week, and you've given me the first good laugh in the last few days.
  
  You're one of these people who think that the US is the best this, the biggest that, bla bla bla. I suggest you do some reading. And for interest, the US comes SEVENTEENTH in a list of corrupt countries. Nothing there to boast about, is there?
  
  http://tinyurl.com/2jfokr

  1.2.2008 18:52 #23

• don010

  Poseidon5 in my opinion you made a great point
  
  why are those guys hating on AMERCAN PRODUCTS. I mean sure apple aint the best of companies out there but hey they did set the bar for mp3 players laptops and even features on the every day motorola phone (not exactly but somewhat).
  
  If you think about it companies like sony and nintendo depend alot on the american market believe it or not, but take a look around the use games made by AMERICANS for example GOD OF WAR(sony) cant think about nintendo lol.
  
  if it weren't for AMericans we would not have computers or god ones to say you would even have afterdawn lol
  so yeah staying on topic yeah so what Apple sucks azz and at&t has horrible service good for them they all help the American economy and both make a hell of a lot more money than we do lmfao.
  
  so chill the world is balanced out like this for a reason

  1.2.2008 20:24 #24

• salsa36

  "Simple and True! ALL Apple products are over priced and people who buy iPod's have got no imagination. "
  
  You should create something better!
  
  That's how life is, if you have an unique product, you want exclusive rights and profit from it, hello!
  
  Instead of critics and empty comments: Do something about it! compete. Create something better...........

  1.2.2008 21:13 #25

• varnull

  It's them analysts again..
  
  from the UK funnies
  
  Quote: According to Analysts 87% of people have a brain, but only 44% know what it is for.
  Worryingly these figures changed to 62% with brain and 6% knowing what it is for when we filtered the statistics to compare only those directly employed as analysts
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work.... Commercial "pay for" software = made by software developers who want paying... see where I'm going with this?

  1.2.2008 21:31 #26

• ericg8

  I love Apple. Full powered unix under the hood. Great user interface. Well-supported products.
  
  But, I root for Vista because I get paid a lot of money to fix Microsoft crap. Go Vista!!!
  
  I do use a Mac at home, and the new iPod touch rocks. Especially if you hack it so you can load it up with apps.

  2.2.2008 01:15 #27

• wrowe

  Why is it that Americans feel that they have the "God Given Right" to brag about their country as being the "BEST" at just about everything? Yet when someone from another country dares to disagree with something said or done by America, they are treated with disdain and told ..."What do you know? Your just a crappy foreigner." (A comment thrown at me in another forum, where I dared to comment that George W Bush just might not have been the best President the U.S. has ever had.)

  2.2.2008 15:07 #28

• bogwart16

  It's not their fault; they're trained by advertising and 'entertainment' to believe that from Day One. It sounds good, even thought it hasn't happened for them yet. And don't forget their mainland hasn't been invaded for a couple of hundred years, so they have no understanding of that experience.
  
  This thread about the iPhone displays so much ignorance. It is amusing that the phone is Chinese-made, not American as they seem to think, and one major reason why there's not much take-up in the UK is because it's outrageously expensive. It has an excellent interface, but it's way behind the kind of mobile we are used to.
  
  The coming financial collapse will sort out all that though. The EU now has a bigger economy and it has to be admitted that nobody in history has been quite as good at murdering foreign citizens as the Americans.
  
  I guess we all have to be good at something.

  2.2.2008 15:30 #29

• Archie26

  edited by ddp

  2.2.2008 16:54 #30

• ddp

  no politics on this site, post edited. that goes for everybody else, understood?!!!

  2.2.2008 17:00 #31

• dufas

  To get back to the iPhone.......
  
  An analogy might be that you purchase a vehicle only to find out that you can only drive it on certain roads and only use one companies' fuel. You finally find a way to hack the thing so you can drive where you want to but every time that you fuel up, your hack is taken down and you can't drive where you want. There are threats to completely disable the vehicle if it is not used in he way that the manufacturer prescribes. The vehicle manufacturer says if you don't like it, buy another make of car.
  
  Note that the producer of any given item has more rights than the purchaser.
  
  It is understood that a manufacturer of toasters can control what type of bread that one puts in 'their' toaster or a clothing manufacturer can prescribe what day and time that one can wear 'their' underwear.
  
  Sort of like governments.....oops, thats politics, isn't it....???

  3.2.2008 11:19 #32

• Amir89

  Good, great, as long it hurts Apple and AT&T why are we complaining?
  
  The iPhone is yet another overstyled, overpriced piece of junk trying so hard to be different it fails; while AT&T are turning into the Government's personal Department of Snooping.
  
  Both of them deserve death.
  

  Current Specs:
  Intel82801BA Mobo, Intel D 945G @3.4Ghz, 2x2Mb L2 Cache, 1Gb DDR2 SD RAM @677Mhz, 250Gb WD Caviar @10,000Rpm, GeForce7600GT 512MB GDDR2, ASUSTek Tiger Digital/Analog TV Tuner, Samsung SyncMaster941BW 19" LCD, LG H20L DVD±R/RW DL LightScribe, LG GSA-4167B DVD±R/RW DL, Logitech Z-5500 505Watt 5.1 Surround
  
  

  3.2.2008 11:34 #33

• bogwart16

  That is a perfect analogy, and one of the main reasons why iPhone sales have been so slow in the UK. If you take into consideration the initial cost of the handset at £269, plus the cheapest O2 contract which is 18 months at £35, the cost is absurd. Particularly for a mobile which doesn't even have 3G, although it is promised for this year.
  
  It's hardly surprising that everyone I know who has an iPhone has hacked it, or had it done. You can't buy the phone in France, because France forbids this kind of monopolistic behaviour. How this can happen in one part of the EU and not others is a mystery, but it's a fact.
  
  To sum up, you have a beautiful piece of kit, with probably the best touch-screen on the market, but it's far too expensive, has old technology and ridiculously bad marketing.

  3.2.2008 11:35 #34

• borhan9

  This is to be expected if you try and control consumers choices of course they are going to break the rules and get ur goods and use it as for their own beifets and then the companies loose big at their gamble remember the saying dont put all your eggs in one basket.

  20.2.2008 00:29 #35