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Apple limits iPhones to two-per-shopper

NEW YORK - The technology group Apple plans to limit sales of its hugely popular iPhone to two for each customer to prevent illegal trafficking in the telephones and preserve stocks for Christmas.

The company also said Saturday it would refuse to let people pay in cash for the phones, insisting on bank card payments so sales can be tracked.

Apple spokesman Simon Pope confirmed the press reports of the move, describing them as ‘accurate,’ in an email to AFP.

On Monday Apple said that some quarter-million iPhones, out of 1.4 million snapped up in the first three months after its June launch, had been unblocked with pirated software so they can be used with any telephone network.

Apple had a deal granting the US telecom operator AT&T exclusive rights in the United States for the iPhone, which can be used to surf the Internet and play music and videos.

The pirate software spawned a black market in unblocked iPhones, notably to Europe and Asia where the sleekly designed phone is not yet on sale. The programs let the phone be used with networks outside the United States.

Hundreds of unblocked iPhones are for sale on the online auction site eBay, most of them for 500 to 600 dollars.

Apple released an updated version of its software to try and make the unblocked versions obsolete, but specialized websites report that hackers have got round it with new unblocking systems.

Apple has said it hopes to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.