Why Apple will resist attempts to unlock the iPhone

By Stephen Withers
Thursday, 12 July 2007 12:16

Your IT - Mobility

The way people carry on, you'd think Apple was the only company that ever sold a mobile phone that was locked to a specific carrier.

But certain individuals love a challenge, so it's not surprising that at least one team is delving into the iPhone's firmware in an attempt to release it from AT&T's clutches. Another motivation, we suspect, is that AT&T isn't the best-loved mobile carrier in the country.

And talking of country, a method of unlocking the iPhone would complement the existing hack that permits activation without Apple's involvement to allow its use by non-US residents. At least one buyer claims to have successfully cancelled the AT&T contract shortly after buying an iPhone.

At the time of the iPhone launch there were confident claims that would-be unlockers would succeed within a few days, but almost two weeks have passed without reports of general success. UK-based unlocking company Uniquephones claimed to have achieved 75 percent success rate during testing, but has yet to put its method into production and the veracity of its claim has been challenged.

If you've spent $50 to $100 on a prepaid mobile, then the financial risk involved in getting it unlocked is fairly small. If the phone fails completely, it's no big deal. But when the phone costs $500-$600, you might not be satisfied with a money-back guarantee on the unlocking service - a guarantee that the phone will be left in working condition would be very desirable.

It's a bit like attempting to flash a DVD drive with unofficial firmware. If it's a desktop computer with an off-the-shelf drive that you can easily replace for say $30, it doesn't really matter if you turn it into a brick. But if you're looking at a notebook with an obscure drive and high service charges that would take the replacement cost to perhaps $250, most people would think twice.

So even if someone does come up with an unlocking method, we doubt there will be a huge rush of takers even among those that don't regard visual voicemail as a killer feature.

But you really do have to question the reason for locking the iPhone in the first place. Locking is normally used to give the carrier an opportunity to recover handset subsidies. Yet the partners are adamant that AT&T isn't subsidising the iPhone.

Does Apple have a vested interest in maintaining the network lock on the iPhone? Please read on for our theory.