News
iPhone grey market flourishing
By Charles Starrett
Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, February 13, 2008
News Category: iPhone
The grey market for unlocked iPhones is flourishing, according to a BusinessWeek report. The report, which suggests that between 800,000 and million iPhones are unlocked, says that the bulk of the unlocking seems to be occurring in countries where the phone has yet to be introduced. This in some ways lessens the financial impact felt by the Apple and its carrier partners — partners which stand to lose hundreds of dollars in monthly fees per device due to unlocking, but have up to this point done little to interfere with the market for unlocked iPhones. Some foreign carriers have even contacted unlocking sources such as PDA Cable, owned by Nathan Walberg, in order to offer the iPhone while bypassing Apple’s revenue sharing model. “I don’t know if [these carriers] can legally encourage unlocking, but they’re not going to discourage it,” says Walberg. “This market will go on forever, because I don’t think there’s a way for Apple to stop us.”
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1
Another reason that Apple should have sold the iPhone unlocked in the first place. Apple would’ve gotten even more sales of the iPhone, and even larger market share (especially in Asia) if they have sold the iPhone unlocked. In the end, Apple probably would’ve received more profits, rather than spending resources to prevent unlocking. I know many people (including me) that was going to get the iPhone, but did not because it’s locked. Hopefully with more and more of these grey market unlocking, AT&T decided it’s not worth it giving money to Apple, and Apple would go selling unlocked iPhone on its own.
Posted by pata2001 on February 13, 2008 at 1:03 PM (PDT)
2
Release the F-ing phone in Canada already,sheesshh
Posted by canadan on February 14, 2008 at 9:25 PM (PDT)