400 000 unlocked iPhones in China

For the first time a telephone operator, China Mobile, revealed the number of iPhones connected to its network. The figure is impressive: 400 000 at the end of 2007, and certainly exceeds any numbers one might have guessed at.
At present, some pessimistic analysis estimates there to be 1,5 million unlocked iPhones on a total of about 3.7 units sold. This is an enormous rebuff to the economic model decided upon by Apple. It has created a significant parallel market whose intermediaries are making very considerable profit margin (for the first time in years with Apple products).