'Lost' iPhone call revenue is just a phantom

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 30 January 2008 00:30

Your IT - Mobility

It's also a stretch to suggest that Apple is missing out on the revenue it would have received when the iPhone finally goes on sale in those countries. By the time that happens, these early adopters may well have moved on to something else. If they've had a good experience, maybe that "something else" will be a second-generation iPhone, and perhaps they will use it on the 'official' carrier's network.

As for iPhones that remain in the country where they were sold without being activated, that's just a vote of no confidence in the carrier. If someone's prepared to go to the trouble of unlocking their iPhone and to do without visual voicemail, that tells me they were never going to use the official carrier. If that's correct, each time it happens Apple loses nothing and gains a customer - along with the revenue and profit generated by each iPhone sale.

Sure, Apple would prefer that all iPhones stay with the official carriers in order to get that trailing revenue. But do you really think the company was 100 percent sure that it could prevent the iPhone from being unlocked (especially when that option is mandatory in some countries) and that the entire business plan was predicated on that?

As far as we know, each iPhone sold generates a profit for Apple. If you were a shareholder, would you prefer Apple to sell more or fewer iPhones, regardless of whether they were being unlocked?