I'm glad someone finally pointed this out. I invite anyone to go to NY and look in all of the electronic boutiques-their windows are filled with unlocked iphones for sale. In Paris, unlocked iphones are more common than those purchased from orange. Its probably the same around the world.

Additionally, Apple has to know the exact amount going out due to their profit-sharing relationship with ATT.

Only I alone hold half a dozen unlocked iPhones. I am from Brazil, and I've seen many floating around. We also have dozens of small websites doing unlocking services and such.

That's just good business if you ask me (and you did!). If there's international demand that business partners just can't meet, so be it, the free market has easily done it themselves, more power to 'em!

And since I just had my iPhone replaced with a new one (locked down, obviously) I can tell from personal experience an unlocked iPhone is 10x more useful and 20x more fun than the official version. Webapps suck, especially when my signal is gone.

Well Im an Indian and I myself own 2 iphones! ;-D

I don't like how 'bunch' sounds, but anyway... I know several fellow Spaniards who own an iPhone, so I guess the number of Europeans with an iPhone is quite high.

That still explains the stock drop though. If that's the case the investors are cheesed that Apple won't be getting the revenue sharing form the service providers on the hacked phones.

Lots of unlocked iPhones in Canada (on Rogers). Unfortunately Rogers, the sole-GSM provider, doesn't realize that a revenue-share deal with Apple and the market leadership associated with the iPhone is better than what they are getting now - 0% of $0.

Hey, every housewife in Moscow has an iPhone now - they're very much in favor, they're like 500$ for fresh in packed in the box and 2-3 hundreds more for unlocked ones.

Lots of unlocked iPhones in China too. I bought mine in Beijing where there were many for sale unlocked and locally customised. Hong Kong is a different matter – it's full of them!<P>

I wouldn't have bought one if I wasn't able to:<P>

a) unlock it and use local and international SIMs (China Mobile, HKCSL, Virgin, etc)<BR>
b) jailbreak it and use the many useful 3rd party apps<P>

Locked iPhone on official service provider? Mehhhhhh.

The missing iPhones are in Jobs' ass together with the heads of dumbass Maczealots.

I unlocked 20 iphones (1.1.1 fw) in one Saturday for sale in West Africa, where they are the thing to be seen with. Costs $800 unlocked in Senegal, $1000 in Guinea Bissau.
So there is a channel alright

"Just look at our Google ads! "

Oops! I think you just violated your Google Adsense agreement!

HA, what a joke! The above article is BS, nothing more to it, plain and simple bull crap. There is absolutely NO WAY that 1/3 of iPhones have been unlocked. Estimates say that Apple makes an $80 profit per iPhone sold ($400 revenues - $320 production costs) and $10 per month from AT&T per iPhone subscriber (thats $240 per iphone sold over two year contract). That comes out to Apple making a profit of $320 per iPhone sold. My point is that there is no way Apple will allow users to not pay the $240 owed to them (which is 75% of their profit). If 1/3 of the 4M iPhones we unlocked, that is a total of $320,000,000 of lost revenue.

By the way, what do you think of my suit?

Hey whats the deal with: 18 84 58 A6 D1 50 34 DF E3 86 F2 3B 61 D4 37 74

I just got back from Mumbai, India. All iPhones there are unlocked (they're not exported to India at this time), and there are a LOT of people there who either have or want iPhones.

If 1/3 of the 4M iPhones we unlocked, that is a total of $320,000,000 of lost revenue.

Think buzz creation & marketing. How much does that usually cost ? So I`d tend to go with the unlocked over there scenario(s). Every place I read about this that allows comments has the same thread of responses claiming non "official" phones in some country. Trolls ? I think not.

This gadget is too useful to not be spread by all means available. Unlocked it most likely is the state of all these "missing" phones.

I live in Sweden. Neither me or any of my friends are tech freaks nor Apple fans, and still the iPhone is the most common phone used within my circle of friends. Even Apple as a brand is the most common. 7 Apple, 6 Nokias (different models) 5 SEs and 2 Motos..  They have a great product, that's all it takes.

A lot of these "missing" iPhones are simply not yet activated. Hundreds of thousand of iPhones were given as Christmas gifts, and the recipients had not activated their phone by the end of the year. Now I Know lots of iPhones are being sold and unlock, but a good percentage of these "missing" iPhones simply are yet active on AT&T due to folk's current carrier contract issues, or number portability, or simply people traveling and being away from their computers (and iTunes).

Me, my husband and 3 other friends hold UnLocked iPhones! :) Simple and free process and so much nicer to keep my carrier (T-Mobile)

Plenty of unlocked iPhones here in Australia. Aussies are waiting for a 3G version, so we're probably underrepresented, but there must be thousands of iPhones here already.

It's on "sale" for more than A$1,050 in a Chinese mobile phone shop here in Australia. They're everywhere.

512,000 - 1.

Here is one Canadian who owns one of those missing 512,000 iphones. Now, just 511,999 left to account for !!!

As a previous commenter said, Hong Kong is absolutely full of them - usual rate unlocked is US$500 to US$600 dependent on supply which now seems pretty good. I have one and am just waiting to see whether the SDK apps will be possible to install on the hacked versions. The 3G version will be massive here too if it can be unlocked.

If Apple are still making a profit without the AT&T revenue, why would they block the sales when a large percentage of the units are going to countries that can't buy the phone legally (like all of Asia and a lot of Europe). In addition, they don't have any iPhone support, repair or marketing costs in these countries yet still benefit from the brand 'halo' effect on the Mac line.

Long may this continue!

I live in Vienna , Austria and I got already in November an iPhone 1.1.1 and unlocked myself. I would have bought one locked through my carrier (T-Mobile) if was sold here in Austria but until now there is no sign when it will land in Austria. I really fail to understand why Apple is dragging their feet to have the iPhone marketed in the rest of Europe and even in the rest of world; there would be many who would buy it officially and more important Apple will not loose a lot of revenues. But who is listening??

If the first geneation phone get this much attention worldwide without being deployed worldwide, god help us all when the second generation(3G, cheaper, more features) comes out.  This is just a start folks. Come back in a year...you will be lot richer that's for sure.