The Missing iPhones?

There is a lot of discussion among analysts and bloggers about the missing--some say up to 1 million--iPhones that cannot be accounted for through sales in the US, UK, Germany, and France. Explanations range from phones in the channel to phones that have been unlocked. I tend to think that most are primarily in the latter category. If you head over to The Apple Unofficial Web Site (TUAW) at http://www.tuaw.com/photos/iphones-around-the-world/, you will see 84 (at last count) of the iPhone being used around the world. For example, there are pictures of the iPhone on local wireless carriers in Russia, the Czech Republic, Iran, China, and Viet Nam, Brazil, and Mexico among many others. Of particular interest was one of the pictures from Viet Nam: You can count at least 30 iPhones on a wall in a wireless store. If this is any indication, a million iPhones could be spread across China alone.

With that said, I would think this creates a problem for Apple. They are missing out on recurring revenue from such unlocked phones. On the other hand, the carriers are getting they revenue, so they may be less likely to sign a restrictive deal with Apple. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.