250,000 or 300,000 SIM Unlocked iPhones!

As reported yesterday by Dana, one of our readers, Apple announced to have shipped 250,000 iPhones which were not activated according to the agreement between Apple and AT&T. This is a huge number, as it represents 17% of all iPhones sold since its launch and recorded for the fiscal 2007 year.
With such report, Apple will have to discuss with its partners:
- for AT&T and carriers in Europe, Apple will have to explain why so many SIM Unlocked iPhone are being sold while those partners have paid the premium price for getting it exclusively.
- Apple will have to decide how to handle those 250,000 iPhone owners, and releasing new features via a firmware update can not be the solution.
- Last but not least, Apple will have to fight against people who have developed a business around those SIM unlocked iPhones, and especially those trading imported units at very high prices. For once, Apple is not entirely controlling its market distribution channels.
The solution would be to sell the iPhone as a subscription-free device in carriers shops, of course at a premium price, not too high to make SIM unlocking not attractive due to the hassle of firmware updates, but high enough to please Apple's exclusive partners.
Today, while presenting its financial result for the last quarter, AT&T announced 41% profit increase, largely attributed to iPhone sales.
Interestingly, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson announced that the company activated 1.1 million iPhones since the product launched (40% new customers to AT&T). So, this would mean that Apple shipped not 250,000 SIM unlocked iPhone, but 300.000, in other words close to 25% of total sales.
The part of the conference transcript can be found here