In a new report posted TechCrunch and CrunchGear numbers show the true potential of the iPhone and its demand.

3GS sales surpassed that of 3G and AT&T (US carrier) reported a staggering 1.2 million new subscribers for the Quarter. What is important to note is that it has 1.6 million iPhone activations & 38% increment in wireless data revenue. Similar performance being reported by O2 (UK carrier) of the iPhone. Though there are no numbers for O2, they have also reported 3GS sales being higher than the 3G iPhone launch.

Question is – is it in the best interest for Apple to lock itself down with specific carriers – mainly only 1 exclusive carrier per country? If they were to sign up all carriers, their sales would increase marginally but promote more competition amongst the carriers, but at the end of it Apple still stands to gain more. How? Imagine the number of people hitting the app store and downloading more apps. This could be a huge boost for Apple – not so much for the carriers!