Originally Posted by Murfunit

Steve can care less about revenue from unlocked phones.

That's a one time purchase.

The carrier contract is is where the bucks are. Hardware mfgr and carrier alike make their money on the contract you sign.

No contract = no revenue.

So tell me again why Apple wants to let you unlock a phone? Oh right, so they can make $400 on the purchase and lose $1500 on your contract over the first 2 years....

Yup lot of economic sense there

Apple would rather take $400 of "right now" revenue than $1500 of "over 2 years" revenue. They could use the money for other R&D and so on.

Also, it will also take a LONG time and process for ATT to pay Apple's end of the deal.

So, yes.. lot of economic sense there

Originally Posted by aerohunter

Of course, I am sure there is more to be made from contract on per unit base. I would think Apple could have sold a lot more unlock units to match or even better the profit from the contract. GSM, EDGE are world standards. Unlocked phone are working perfectly fine around the world with confirmed reports. If he had made it easier for people to use their own SIM and worldwide launch, I bet there will be a shortage of iPhone now.

You miss the point.
They've done the math, and they know that they simply make more money in selling the stuff locked to an operator. I mean, in 3 years more money than selling it worldwide in the first year.
Forget about the short term of the last six months..think at a year from now, when it will likely be sold nearly everywhere.

And, to do this you obviously need to only ship locked (as hard as possible) phones...you can't say "well, ok, in France i will sell it unlocked", or in a matter of days you'll find the unlocked ones everywhere in the world...

Vanni

I'm pretty sure they can make more money by selling something rather than nothing. That is, they get to sell iphones to people who weren't going to buy one in the first place if it wasn't unlockable... such as people in countries where Apple has no partners, people who don't want a 2 year contract, people who are currently locked to other contracts, or people who simply don't make enough phone calls to pay $60 a month.

Those were non-customers, making $50 ($100 or whatever) on those people is better than making nothing on them. The iphone isn't likely subsidized, otherwise they wouldn't be selling a stripped version in the form of the ipod touch for $100 less.

EXACTLY! I am sure they are doing the math everyday, and they are kicking themself in the butt for it. The price drop was not due to the lower cost in manufactuing, it is due to over stock in invetory and the pressure from the supplier who stockpile raw materials for Apple. A friend of mine works at a such company. Apple was rushing them so bad for materials before iDay, and all the sudden the demand came to a halt after iPhone release. WHY? iPhone is not selling as they expected. price and contract are obvious reasons.

Now that they see the demand for hackable iphone... probably a slown down for unhackable iPhone, hmm... probably a hackable or not so unhackable FW in the future.. who knows

i think they should try and sell as many phones as they can and forget about the att contract. sell phones, then put all of the sales money in a bank account with a very high APR, and they will end up making more money.
also, phones, like any other devices, don't last forever, and i think they are only made to last a couple of years, so people will have to buy new ones, just like the ipod. the ipods get messed up easily, and once u get hooked up on an ipod and it breaks, you will want to buy a new one. so i think apple is better off selling as many phones as they can, unlocked, and in any country they can. they will make more money, and capture a greater market share.