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The Register reports that as many as 27% of iPhones in the wild are not running on Apple partners' official services. That's a million iPhones. This does include iPhones sold in markets such as France, where an unlocked phone option is mandatory, albeit a more spendy one. The announcement by Apple that 3.75 million iPhones have been sold led some to believe that 1.45 million were still in inventory on a shelf somewhere. Or in consumers' hands, running alternative SIMs. The latter appears more likely. True, this means Apple's not getting the contract revenue. But that's Cupertino having its cake and eating it as well. More importantly, it's shifting the hardware, which even with the price cut, is probably delivering a healthy margin, even if it's not as profitable as firms like iSuppli say it is. And there's the rub: jailbreaks have appeared for every iPhone firmware release. Apple must be seen to be clamping down on hackers, but can't risk foregoing too many sales – 27%, to be precise. Otherwise, that 10 million target is pie in the sky. At the very least, potential purchasers have to believe that they will have the option of unlocking.
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