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Unsanctioned iPhones overseas? Yeah, bigtime

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%

 

What People Are Saying

1 in 50

So out of the total of 50 internet connections in Equatorial Guinea, 1 is using an iPhone

I'm surprised Canada is so

I'm surprised Canada is so low. They're everywhere here.

iPod touch mistaken for iPhone

Doesn't the browser from the iPod touch appear the same as the iPhone? And so couldn't this bias the results?

According to Net Applications...

it appears as a different browser even though it is essentially the same thing. Therefore, iPhones are seperate. IT doesn't take into consideration wifi though - which could be some of the traffic from iPhones

Is this unexpectex?

Is this unexpected? In Dubai and most of the rest of the Middle East unlocked iPhones have been selling like crazy since it was released and first unlocked. We've been dealing with this on our site in a big way, with people running into problems and no one around to help them because of no warranty and service.