The case of the missing iPhones

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of questions and speculations on the discrepancy between the number of iPhone Apple has claimed it has sold (4 million) and the number which has been activated by operators like AT&T (US) and O2 (UK). The “missing” iPhones are as many as 1.3 million units. Where did they all go?

There is no doubt that there is a healthy grey market for the iPhone worldwide, since it is only officially available in 4 countries at the moment (US, UK, Germany, France). Apple should have taken Palm’s route of releasing one version for US operators and one unlocked one for the rest of the world.

In a lot of countries, telcos don’t practice heavy subsidies of mobile phones, so consumers are used to buying phones at full price. High end phones go from US$400-800 but there are still ready buyers. Even at a US$100-200 premium, without 3G and without warranty support, the iPhone sells pretty well.

In my office alone, I know of at least 4 other iPhone users. In an industry meeting that I attended earlier this week, two people had their iPhones with them as secondary phones. The primary phone was a Blackberry is both cases. What was surprising is that no one batted an eyelid at the iPhones — I guess the other 8 people in the meeting had all played with iPhones before!

If Apple wants to hit its 10 million target for iPhones by end of 2008, it definitely needs to open up.

Filed under: iPhone

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