At today's 5:00pm conference call by Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) the computer and entertainment company announced that it estimated that 250,000 of the 1.4 million iPhones it sold since the iPhone debuted just a few short months ago were sold to unlockers.

Apple maintains a 'multi-year' contract with cellular phone carrier AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), locking customers in to the phone company if they wish to use the iPhone's full feature set. However many customers find that unsatisfying, preferring carriers that may work better in their home area, or that they already have contracts with. Many phones are also sent overseas where the iPhones may have yet to roll out.

While many suspected a large number of iPhones were sold for this purpose, finding out that roughly almost 18% of these phones are for customers who don't want to use AT&T is interesting. It might prompt Apple to stop 'bricking' it's iPhones to halt unlockers if they realize almost a fifth of their iPhone sales come from them.

Back on Oct. 4, The Unofficial Apple Weblog ran a story that estimated 10% was the number.