We decided to post a report from Dana, one of our readers, as his comment is a good analysis of the current problem faced by Cupertino: high unlocked iPhones sales.
A few days ago Apple announced that the Apple Store would sell only
three iPhones to any one customer (at least in the US), yesterday they reduced the number to two. Clearly, this is Apple's attempt to curtail the percentage of unlocked iPhones in circulation, since some individuals were buying them in large numbers, unlocking them, and then reselling them. I would imagine that Apple feels legally obligated by its contractual arrangement with AT&T and its foreign counterparts to make what lawyers call a "good faith" attempt to restrict the availability of unlocked iPhones. This is how Apple is trying (to use your words) to control its market distribution channels.
But this may turn out to be a bad decision. The really impressive feature of the number of unlocked phones in circulation is that it represent
