Originally Posted by
ScottC
It has been widely reported that Apple gets a (considerable) cut of each iPhone subscription. The profits from that over 2 years are probably much greater than what they make on the iPhone itself.
Buying it and using it on a different provider means Apple doesn't get their share.
Probably true but they probably make a good enough margin on the HW sale alone.
If you look at how they configured the iPod Touch, keeping out things like email and calendaring applications out of the iPod Touch, looks like they're upselling to the iPhone.
So they may not mind if they get incremental sales to people who otherwise wouldn't have bought the iPhone if not for the unlock.