Apples Estimates 250K iPhones Sold to Unlockers
During the Q&A portion of Monday’s Q4 earnings call, Apple’s COO Timothy Cook made an interesting statement.
Cook said he estimates that 250,000 of the nearly 1.4 million iPhones Apple has sold were “bought with intention of unlocking.”
That’s almost 20 percent of all iPhones sold to date. Can Cook be serious?
The admonition came while Cook was answering questions about the price cuts that happened mid quarter and their effect of iPhone sales.
Here’s what he had to say:
We were very happy with the elasticity we saw. It enabled us to far surpass our expectation of hitting around a million units cumulatively by the end of the quarter. Some number of these were sold to people who had the intention to unlock. And while we don’t know precisely how many people are doing that, our current guess is that there was probably 250,000 thousand of the 1.4 million that we sold, where people had bought them with the intention of doing that. Many of those happened after the price cut.
Cook went on to say that AT&T [revenue sharing] payments were obviously dependent on the iPhone being locked to AT&T.
In other words Apple gets squat from AT&T unless the phone is activated through the wireless provider.
Previously Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Michael Olson suggested that the AT&T revenue sharing is likely based on the circumstances under which a person bought their iPhone.
At a minimum, the two estimate $3 a month per existing AT&T customer, for the duration of their two-year contract; this figure is said to go up by $8, however, if the person switched to AT&T for the iPhone.
Apple Leopard Leaps On Oct 26
Apple has announced that Leopard, the next revision of Mac OS X, will go on sale Friday, October 26.
Earlier this morning, Apple pulled down its online store and relaunched with the new announcement and an option to pre-order the software for delivery on Oct 26th.
As with previous OS X revisions, Leopard will sell for $130, with Family packs are available for $200. Leopard will ship on DVD and requires an Intel Mac, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster).
With Apple having recently passed out $100 vouchers to iPhone early adopters, I suspect a fair number of those folks are about to cash in on Leopard.
Dog Using Apple iPod Touch
There appears to be a whole YouTube sub-genre of animals using Apple devices.
Gizmodo dug up this gem: A dog “browsing” photos on an Apple iPod Touch.
It looks more like the dog is attacking the Apple iPod, but still, it’s very, very cute.
Has Apple Jumped The Shark And Gone Rotten?
What should have been another glorious moment in the sun for Apple is quickly turning into a blemish that won’t go away.
Rather than bask in the victory of the iPhone, Apple appears to have undermined itself by bricking modified iPhones.
Is this the beginning of the end?
It happens to every great civilization. A long period of slow growth, followed by an intense period of innovation, then a plateau, and eventually a long road down.
It happened to Rome. And if it can happen to Arthur Fonzarelli, it can happen to Apple.
As many bloggers have pointed out, this bricked iPhone debate has stirred people to their cores. Lots of strong feelings abound. Rather than continue the debate itself here, I have one issue in mind.
Will this bricking debacle permanently besmirch Apple’s name? Is this the first bruise on the surface that will eventually soften the entire apple and cause it to rot?
Will Apple continue to hide behind its user terms of agreement, or eventually admit it might have made a mistake here?
To borrow a phrase from popular television, has Apple jumped the shark? Or will it stick to its guns, ride out the wave of negativity and hope that Pinky still wants to give it a hug and kiss after it lands?
I am undecided. We’ll have to see if the shark ignores what’s going on over its head, or chooses to jump out of the water and take a a bite.
Apple iPhone Update Woes Are Not Unique
As any long-time Apple user knows, Jobs and Company offer frequent updates to the base Apple operating system, iPod software, iTunes software, other patches, plugs and fixes.
Not all of them have gone smoothly. So why all the bad press just for the Apple iPhone?
All you have to do is pay attention to any user forum or Mac site such as MacRumors.com to know that nearly every software upgrade has caused a problem for someone.
The OS updates, such as updating from 10.4.9 to 10.4.10, seem to cause more problems than others. Users report various problems from the benign to the severe.
I have experienced a couple of hiccups myself over the last few years. After one firmware update, my G5’s fan began to whir at high speed constantly.
It wasn’t long before Apple issued another patch and the whirring went away. Each of the problems was fixable, though.
Before the iPhone, these user issues caused little fuss in the press.
“Bricking” a $600.00 USD device, whether by design or by accident, seems to be an altogether different issue. Nevermind that my G5 system cost way more than $600.00 USD.
Apparently Apple is supposed to be perfect. Everything is supposed to work flawlessly for everyone all the time.
C’mon. Get real. Microsoft isn’t held to those standards.
How many people attempted to update their Microsoft-based systems and were met with the blue screen of death? You can’t tell me it hasn’t happened.
But the iPhone is a lightning rod of sorts. Whether you love it or hate it, are an Apple fanboy or an Apple hater, people can’t seem to stop talking about it.
Are legitimate users of the iPhone–who never hacked it–having issues with their 1.1.1 software upgrades?
Sure. And it sucks. But it’s nothing new.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs Drops in to Rally the Yahoo Troops
According to an undisclosed source, Steve Jobs was the secret guest at Yahoo’s executive huddle last Friday.
Apple’s CEO played motivational speaker for the 300-strong group, essentially letting them know that an Apple-like comeback could still be in the cards for the web portal.
It was kind of the Apple executive to drop in and help rally the Yahoo troops, however there’s definitely something interesting about the choice.
Jobs is an ideal go-to when it comes to the topic of making comebacks, but if anyone should be expected to raise morale, one would think it would be either Jerry Yang or Susan Decker.
Yahoo’s dynamic duo has obviously got it in terms of technological vision and financial acumen but that Steve Jobs needed to guide the company through its current slump?
Maybe that’ll come after the first 100 days.