In today's note to clients Gene Munster, analyst for Piper Jaffray briefly wrote about iPhone hacking and third party applications for the iPhone.
Munster agreed first hand that a larger set of applications would make the iPhone more attractive but was keen to note that for the majority of consumers this had "little to no impact" on their purchasing decision.
"Some of the more popular third-party applications that hackers are installing include an instant messaging application, a voice recording application, and several games," he wrote. "We believe Apple may eventually open the iPhone up to a limited amount of pre-approved applications that they would monetize via the iTunes Store, but there has been very little indication from the company that that is forthcoming."
Munster also wrote about the financial impact of iPhone unlocking. He believes that the financial effect is minimal as at most only 10 percent of iPhones are unlocked and effecting Apple's bottom line.
"We are modeling for the [September quarter] revenue share from AT&T to be $7 million, so our estimate of unlocked iPhones would only have a [maximum] $700k impact on revenue in the quarter," wrote Munster. "However, this does not account for the additional phones that are sold because they can be unlocked, which partially offsets the impact of the foregone shared revenue."
Munster maintains an Outperform rating on Apple stock and a price target of $211.