Calculations that claim Apple Inc. is "missing" 1.4 million iPhones may be missing the point, according to an analyst, who said Monday that talk of uncounted phones overlooks the fact that the mobile market is only a small part of Apple's overall business.
"Stock analysts have been paying lots of attention to the iPhone numbers," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research Inc., "and clearly the revenue [mobile service] providers give back to Apple affect profitability. But if you look at Apple, it's solidly profitable without the iPhone. The iPhone just takes it up to another level."
Gottheil was responding to calculations by Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Bernstein Research, that were widely reported last week. Sacconaghi used the 3.7 million iPhones reported sold by Apple and the 2 million activations cited by AT&T Inc. to conclude that about 1.4 million of the devices are either in inventory or have been unlocked.
"Some unknown number of iPhones are being unlocked by purchasers and some, probably a larger number, are being unlocked for resale," said Gottheil. "Some are in inventory. Some will be returned. And some are being used for the non-phone features, as iPhone Touches, until the owners can change their wireless contracts.
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