Phone model updates

Sales figures from Apple imply that Circa 1 million out of an estimated 3.75 million (Dec 2007) Apple iPhones have not been activated by either AT&T (less than 2 million) or any of it's carriers in the European Market.

This leads to the conclusion that more than 1 million iPhones have been bought and sold in the grey market, probably mostly to countries that have not yet worked out deals with local carriers.

On our trading floor, the first wholesale offers for iPhones started springing up in September - just as the unlocking solution became publically available. Ever since, it has consistently been amongst in Top 3 - if not the number one - most traded handsets.

The demand for this smart phone is very solid, as reflected by a stable price (circa €360 since October). It even managed to go up (to €380) in November, right after launch in Europe.

The Apple iPhone has turned out to be an opportunity for service companies that specialize in unlocking solutions - not least, the fact that when customers upgrade software on the phone, it sometimes gets "bricked" and/or re-locked.

In our opinion Apple is losing out, as attempting to halt the parallel market is proving difficult on the one hand, and that they could be selling SIM free iPhones at a higher price, which the consumer will be willing to pay anyway. The winners here are the traders, exporting handsets out of the US, and unlockers charging circa €50 a pop to unlock the iphones.