i wouldn't buy an iPhone and unlock it to switch to another carrier, unless i was in a different country. at&t isn't all that bad with their service.

wow! this is great and more I have ever expected. maybe this gives us a lobby. count me to the 250 000.

Yeah, that was my reaction - way more than I had guessed (which was in the 1-2% range). It seems so high as to be WEIRD. I mean there are certainly folks upset about the 1.1.1 update which killed unlocking, but with 250K you'd think lines would be out the door trying to return, fix, or whatever, their unlocked iPhones. There were a few but really quite few.

My initial concern is what happens to those sales now that Apple has signaled how strong they'll be about preventing unlocking. Will they address most of that need by European sales (and future Asian sales)? I'm not sure.

Yeah, weird.

Can't help but to think that these numbers, and the release of the (unlocked) iphone in France at the end of next month, will only put pressure on apple to work with already unlocked phones. I realize apple has agreements with service providers, but a quarter-million existing and potential apple computer users is a big number.

I would love to know how many of these iphones presently reside in Canada. Parity definitely encouraged me across the border.

For AT&T this is a huge non-issue. They basically negotiated for Apple to stick with the GSM-enabled device. Thus, regardless of any unlocking device; leaves Verizon Wireless - The only competition AT&T has out in the cold. Trust me, AT&T is not worried about T-Mobile. The other GSM US provider; who leases a majority of their Wireless Spectrum from AT&T anyways. On top of that, T-Mobile's rate plans are more expensive than AT&T's.

I unlocked my iphone to be on the t-mobile network because 1) I pay about $30 less for more minutes and UNLIMITED texting. 2) I wasnt going to spend $200 to cancel my t-mobile account just to pay $75(or what ever it is to activate) more money for the iphone on the at&t network. 3) I live on a college campus where the whole campus is wireless so i do not need EDGE hardly at all so why should i spend more money when i dont use it?? if i need directions, i get them on campus because you dont need internet when you have the step by step directions right there. "What about visual voice mail?" WHO CARES! i dont get 10 voicemails a day. so anonymous coward who says t-mobiles more expensive? just one phrase for ya. You gotta look before you leap broda.

I think basie hit on it in the very first post...."unless i was in a different country". I'd hazard a guess if you only count the phones that weren't bought in the US and immediately shipped out of the country the number is likely a lot, lot lower. This is going to be fueled even moreso by the currently weak US dollar that makes it cheaper for people outside the US to buy it. Effectively 100% of those phones are going to be unlocked. Remember back to posts people made here about people of obvious Asian decent (head gear) buying up the iPhones 5 at a time in NYC? And those are just the obvious people. Folks from up here in Canuckistan tend to blend in a lot better. ;) And most of us live within a few hours of the border.

YES, THEY ARE BEING UNLOCKED IN OTHER COUNTRIES.

Take it from me, as I am living in a major SE Asian city and I brought back 5 extras with me.  Sold them wholesale to the unlocking shops for a small profit, paying for my iPhone !  And I let the shop hackers handle all the unlocking.  They are great at this sort of thing over here. 

I've seen LOTS of people using iPhones in this metropolis, where they are not being offered by apple or it's distributors.

The iPhone is a Quad-band GSM world-phone, once it's unlocked.

People need to travel more.

It is actually closer to 18%! Anyhow, is the iPhone any usefull in Canada considering high price of internet over mobile phone????

What did they expect? A conformist pack of loyal devotees? Applefans - conformists? Selling it locked to only one service provider triggered the expected; WTF! - lets unlock the gizmo!

I suppose that most of these SIM unlocked iPhone went abroad. In my case I bought one in the US and unlocked it to use it in the UK.
Now, I think that jumping to the conclusion that because there are 250k "SIM unlocked" iPhones it means that then ~50% of ALL iPhones are unlocked to run 3rd party apps is an exaggeration...
In my case I simply did a SIM unlock and never installed any 3rd party apps. I just wanted an iPhone and did not want to wait till it was released in the UK.

I like iphone, It is creative style.