Analyst: 27 Percent of iPhones ‘Unlocked’
More than a quarter of iPhones in the U.S. do not use AT&T, further clouding the importance of AT&T’s ‘exclusive’ distribution of Apple’s popular touchscreen cell phone, according to a Monday report.
Of 1.45 million iPhones has described as “missing in action,” around 480,000 are thought to be part of AT&T’s inventory. However, 1 million unaccounted iPhones — or 27 percent — are “unlocked” and being used on other mobile networks, Bernstein Research Toni Sacconaghi said.
Sacconoghi called the figure “stunning,” a step up from Apple’s previous talk of “significant” numbers of unlocked iPhones, according to a Reuters report.
The growing number of unlocked iPhones could weigh heavily on Apple, costing it $500 million in lost profits. However, the carrier must walk a tighrope between protecting its cut from carriers and hurting iPhone sales.
Wednesday, Apple holds in annual shareholders meeting.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
