| iPhone unlocking may be widespread |
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| by Stephen Withers | |
| Tuesday, 23 October 2007 | |
  
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250,000 in 1.4 million is 18 percent, or more than one in six. That's a lot of iPhones, assuming all those owners succeeded in unlocking their phones. Can Apple tell whether iPhones have been unlocked? Not directly. But the company does receive a share in AT&T's service revenue related to the iPhone, and if people aren't using AT&T, Apple doesn't get its cut. The cheapest plan is $59.99 per month, and according to various reports Apple gets somewhere between five and 15 percent - perhaps as much as 20 percent - of this. Let's take 10 percent, which is $6 per month. If Cook's number is anything like accurate, Apple's already missing out on $US1.5 million a month, and that number will increase as more iPhones are sold. $US1.5 million is small beer for a company pulling in over $US2 billion a month (not to mention its $US15 billion in cash), but when we've ramped up to 10 million iPhones in use, that's pushing $130 million a year. If Apple hasn't been trying too hard to prevent unlocking so far, sinking another $US10 million or so into the problem would seem to be a good investment - even if it is bad news for iPhone owners. |
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