Power to the iPhone people!

So according to a new Reuters article, over 1/4 of the Apple iPhones sold in 2007 have "gone missing" by the end of the year.  In other words, they have been unlocked and are running on other networks.   Maybe they don't want to be snooped on by at&t (see related blog entry) or maybe they just want to be able to choose which phone they want to use on which network.  Gee, that's an original concept!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22887583/

Maybe there should be an iPhone hackers convention like the internet hackers convention.  Which, of course, doesn't really exist, at least officially. 

Thanks! Most of my observations are described as "ass toot."

BTW, I have a bunch of Super Bowl posts on the way, starting tomorrow. 

But not about the game. About the REALLY important stuff. Stay tuned. ;-) 

I read the New York Post every now and again to revel in the torture of New Yorkers by Boston sports teams, and found this article about some "dopes" to use NYP's term who stole a bunch of iPhones.

There are tons of them being sold unlocked in Asia.

Re: unlocking, CNN reports yesterday (Jan 28 07) that the missing 1.7 million iPhones are causing analysts to become concerned.

I think they're overlooking the ones in inventory at Apple. It's typical for any mfr to carry 30-90 days stock on hand, and analysts are happier with 90, to ensure no disruptions in sales.

Of course, that's altogether misleading -- what we're talking about is 1.7 million registrations with AT&T.

And 1.7 million is a boatload. As the CNN article points out, this is costing Apple as much as $700 million+ in current and future revenue, which folks are subtracting from share prices. So even if analysts are full of poo, this is definitely one of the factors affecting the rapidly declining Q1 share prices...which, between MacWorld buzz and Q4 sales, is usually sharply up.

But the negative buzz from MacWorld is a big deal. Last year the stock went up 10% during the keynote. This year, it went down.

This year's q4 report is what spilled the beans on the missing activations.

Here's the deal: unlocking iPhones is a breeze. You can find instructions all over the web, including YouTube. Find the links yourself.

There are also crazy numbers of iPhone hacking sites, including iphonehacks.com. They're less concerned with unlocking them (more accurately described as cracking) than true hacking, which is having some fun -- mostly around adding 3rd party apps. Which is indeed some fun. Check around the web -- you'll see tons of info on this, including non-hacker sites like c|net and engadget.

BTW, there is an iPhone hacker convention. It's called MacWorld. The hackers don't have booths, but they're there, in big numbers if you know where to look.