Apparently, more than a quarter of iPhones have been ‘unlocked’ to work on a network provider other than the chosen business partner of Apple, AT&T. After conducting some serious research, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi believes that the amount could be as much as 27% of iPhones sold, or one million phones.
Apple (for a number of reasons) chose to release the iPhone on singular networks in each sales territory across the world. Therefore AT&T was the lucky provider in the US, whilst here in the UK it has been officially available via O2.
Frankly, I’m not really surprised at this changing trend really. The iPhone was released to massive publicity, with queues outside the door of many shops as people waited to get their hands on one. To be locked into a particular service or provider (which may not offer what you want) is exactly the sort of thing that companies shouldn’t do. I’m surprised that a corporation who could get the iPod so right could get this so wrong.