Unsanctioned iPhones overseas? Yeah, bigtime
5 comments- TAGS:Africa, Asia, iphones, Middle East, unlocked
- IT TOPICS:Macintosh & Apple, Mobile & Wireless, Personal Technology
Today's report by Net Applications proves that there are lots...and I mean LOTS of unsanctioned iPhones functioning unlocked overseas.
Places like Equatorial Guinea (2.21% of browser traffic is from iPhones?!) and Cote D'Ivoire lead the list of iPhone traffic as a percentage of the countries' overall internet traffic.
Vacation hotspots like Trinidad & Tobago and the Maldives follow. Significant traffic from these sources could be coming from vacationing Americans, French, British and Germans with sanctioned iPhones, however, so this may not be indicative of unlocked iPhones.
In fifth place, is the US with 1/5 of 1% of all internet traffic coming from iPhones. Rounding out the top 15 include: French Polynesia, Brunei, Darussalam, Armenia, Cameroon, Greenland, Malawi, Dominican Republic, Senegal, Libya, Bahamas and Uganda.
France (16), the UK and Germany all finished in the top 25 but no where near the top of the list (reproduced below).
This is further evidence that Apple is knowingly selling a large part of its iPhone inventory (30-40%?) to people who intend to unlock the device and/or send them overseas on the black market. One major concern is that this black market is likely circumventing local taxes and duties which could adversely affect Apple's standing overseas in the long run.
To date Apple has only hinted about its awareness of the black market for unlocked iPhones.
Also check out TUAW's gallery of globally unlocked iPhones.
List of countries and the overall web-browsing usage share of the iPhone for the country:
| Equatorial Guinea | 2.21% |
| Côte D'Ivoire | 0.47% |
| Trinidad & Tobago | 0.25% |
| Maldives | 0.24% |
| USA | 0.20% |
| French Polynesia | 0.19% |
| Brunei Darussalam | 0.19% |
| Armenia | 0.15% |
| Cameroon | 0.14% |
| Greenland | 0.14% |
| Malawi | 0.12% |
| Dominican Republic | 0.11% |
| Senegal | 0.10% |
| Libya | 0.09% |
| Bahamas | 0.09% |
| Uganda | 0.08% |
| France | 0.08% |
| Other | 0.08% |
| United Kingdom | 0.08% |
| Jamaica | 0.08% |
| Egypt | 0.08% |
| Aruba | 0.07% |
| Cambodia | 0.07% |
| El Salvador | 0.07% |
| Haiti | 0.06% |
| Sri Lanka | 0.06% |
| United Arab Emirates | 0.06% |
| Germany | 0.06% |
| Mozambique | 0.06% |
| Cyprus | 0.06% |
| Mauritius | 0.06% |
| Nicaragua | 0.05% |
| Hong Kong | 0.05% |
| Pakistan | 0.05% |
| Macau | 0.05% |
| Lebanon | 0.05% |
| Barbados | 0.05% |
| Costa Rica | 0.05% |
| Botswana | 0.05% |
| Luxembourg | 0.05% |
| Vietnam | 0.05% |
| Saint Lucia | 0.05% |
| Netherlands Antilles | 0.05% |
| Saudi Arabia | 0.04% |
| Chile | 0.04% |
| Israel | 0.04% |
| Venezuela | 0.04% |
| Thailand | 0.04% |
| Macedonia | 0.04% |
| Norway | 0.04% |
| Singapore | 0.04% |
| Russia | 0.04% |
| Guatemala | 0.04% |
| Mexico | 0.04% |
| Argentina | 0.03% |
| Syria | 0.03% |
| Canada | 0.03% |
| Netherlands | 0.03% |
| Bermuda | 0.03% |
| Honduras | 0.03% |
| Austria | 0.03% |
| Switzerland | 0.03% |
| Croatia | 0.03% |
| Nigeria | 0.03% |
| Belgium | 0.03% |
| Ukraine | 0.03% |
| Jordan | 0.03% |
| Brazil | 0.02% |
| Bulgaria | 0.02% |
| Malaysia | 0.02% |
| Qatar | 0.02% |
| Colombia | 0.02% |
| Japan | 0.02% |
| Spain | 0.02% |
| South Africa | 0.02% |
| Sweden | 0.02% |
| Romania | 0.02% |
| Greece | 0.02% |
| Georgia | 0.02% |
| India | 0.02% |
| Oman | 0.02% |
| Estonia | 0.02% |
| Indonesia | 0.02% |
| Denmark | 0.02% |
| Australia | 0.02% |
| Philippines | 0.02% |
| Fiji | 0.02% |
| Myanmar | 0.02% |
| Belize | 0.02% |
| New Zealand | 0.02% |
| Yemen | 0.02% |
| Uruguay | 0.01% |
| Czech Republic | 0.01% |
| Italy | 0.01% |
| Peru | 0.01% |
| Slovakia | 0.01% |
| Ecuador | 0.01% |
| Hungary | 0.01% |
| Kenya | 0.01% |
| Poland | 0.01% |
| Finland | 0.01% |
| Portugal | 0.01% |
| China | 0.01% |
| Turkey | 0.01% |
| Panama | 0.01% |
| Ireland | 0.01% |
| Latvia | 0.01% |
| Slovenia | 0.01% |
| South Korea | 0.00% |
| Lithuania | 0.00% |
| Taiwan | 0.00% |
| Malta | 0.00% |
| Iran | 0.00% |
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