About 1 million people may have illegally hacked into their Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhones so that they no longer are required to use AT&T Inc.'s (NYSE: T) network, according to an estimate by a well-regarded Wall Street analyst.The estimate by Sanford Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi is astounding considering that there were 3.75 million iPhones sold last year, according to a summary of his report on Bloomberg News. For those of you doing the math, that equals 27% of all of the so-called Jesus phones. Another analyst, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, pegs the figure at 838,000.
But as Bloomberg notes, Sacconaghi believes the situation is serious since, "for every 1 million unlocked iPhones, Apple loses $300 million to $400 million in future revenue and profit, and may also find it more difficult to sign deals with new carriers."
So far, Apple has been unable to thwart the hackers and the problem is only going to get worse. Gadget freaks, like the rest of the world, are becoming increasingly worried about the economy. The iPhone that looked like the best thing since sliced bread last year may have become a drain on their wallets this year. The end result is that they will look for the cheapest way to operate their gizmo.
This is an issue Apple cannot afford to ignore.
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