It is no secret that Apple has been taking steps against iPhone unlockers, fighting them on several fronts, but up until now nobody outside the company had any clear idea of exactly what the iPhone unlock situation was. During their quarterly financial results conference Apple shared what their estimate of unlocked iPhones is, and it is staggering.

Apple had sold quite a number of iPhones during the past quarter, 1,119,000 to be precise, bringing the cumulative number of iPhones sold since the products debut 1,389,000. Of those, the company estimates that 250,000 were sold to people who plan to, or already have unlocked the device.
Although the company has no dedicated method of finding out the exact number of unlocked iPhones, a simple comparison of units sold versus AT&T contracts active should give a clear impression. Of course, there is still the matter of iPhones that were bought to be torn down for component analysis and those bought as gift that have not been activated yet, but it seems highly unlikely that they would account for a significant portion of the unlocked iPhones.

One in five iPhones sold for unlocking is quite a lot, and considering how much money Apple loses for each one, it is not surprising that the company wants to bring that number down. Some might argue that this figure is a good indication that people want open iPhones, but that is not necessarily the case. If anything it shows that there is a strong global demand for the product that is yet unavailable in many countries. It will be interesting to see how the French launch of the iPhone affects this number, as well as the Asian launch. Unlocked iPhones are currently selling for quite a lot of money, but once Apple starts selling unlocked iPhones in France, this cottage market will have to adapt or perish, especially since Apple's own unlocked iPhones would be as vulnerable to bricking.