Apple: 1 in 6 iPhones Unlocked

From Boston Globe
Apple Inc. said that almost one out of every six iPhones sold may have been unlocked to run on unauthorized wireless networks, surprising analysts who had estimated the problem wasn't as widespread.

Chief operating officer Timothy Cook said this week that 250,000 of the nearly 1.4 million iPhones sold may have been bought by users with the intention of unlocking them, or modifying the device to work on a network other than AT&T Inc.'s. Customers who aren't signing up with AT&T, Apple's approved service provider in the United States, are preventing the two companies from collecting monthly mobile-phone fees. Analysts had estimated that between 10,000 and 100,000 iPhones had been unlocked since Apple began selling the device in June.

Some buyers have been purchasing five phones at a time at Apple stores in the United States, modifying the software that locks the phone to AT&T's service, and then reselling the unlocked iPhones overseas.

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