I can appreciate at some level the irony in this, as I also see that this can and probably will be looked upon as being illegal. Somehow I don't see Apple and AT&T thinking this is cute.  

2 words... Voided warranty!

Well, yeah that too Night Train. Pay $500(US) or more, hack it, then it starts acting silly, like, not working, oops. It's not even big enough that you could use it as a door stop. Wonder if it would make a good hockey puck?   

IT WAS ME!!!!!!!!!

Frankly I don't understand why Apple would want to lock the iPhone to only one provider in the first place? I can't imagine AT&T payed them enough money to cover the losses of not selling it to non-AT&T customers.

Anyway, personally I don't think it's worth the "price of admission", if it was close to $300 bucks I'd definitely consider getting it, but half a G for a phone that lacks many features that lesser phones have... it just doesn't make sense to me. I just hope Apple doesn't take too long to get 2nd gen iPhone out (of course I also hope they won't screw that one as well, but there's no way they'll screw up twice in a row, is there? ).

From what I've heard (read) even Apple had to accept locking to get some of the features it wanted (visual voicemail for one).

Which is part of the problem. There's no *good* reason for locking phones to a particular provider. There's the argument for subsidized phones, but the contract can handle that part, whether the phone is locked or not. Locking is nothing more than an anti-competitive measure.

Given the various unlocking methods for the iPhone, it's not illegal to unlock it yourself, as there's an explicit exemption to the DMCA (even though the DMCA is a bad law, in all) to allow circumvention for the purpose of unlocking a phone. It gets into some grey territory as to whether a company can sell unlocking codes or tools.

Even with that said, there's at least one retailer (puremobile, in canada), that is getting ready to sell unlocked iPhones (and I'm sure others are in the queue). Warranty might be an issue, and I'm sure the current unlocks may not hold against future changes, but the genie is definitely out of the bottle (and there really wasn't much doubt about that happening). Unlocked iPhones aren't going away.


Sooner or later, the US cellular providers are going to have to give up on the whole locking issue and let their service (such as it may be) be the primary selling point.

I agree. I believe that with rising prices of cellular hardware (smart phones etc) that they should all be unlocked. Business members do not normally just change their cellular providers on a whim so locking the device is like a slap in the face to their customers. Personally I believe locking the phones etc is BS.

And you still can't use it on Verizon or Alltel due to the fact that they don't take SIM cards. So it will only work for some carriers.

I personally question the legality of exclusive contracts with any ONE provider in the first place . Doesn't that pose problems with consumer-rights ( I'm pretty sure even the U.S.A> has those ) ?

I'm quite sure exclusive contracts in Europe ( buy an i-phone,call with vodaphone only ) will be deemed illegal by the european commission and will be a no-no .

AT&T are the big losers in all of this . The reason why this software was developed is quite clear:

- folks don't want to be forced to use any ONE carrier ,just to be able to use a phone ( also due to cost involved- but also because folks can be quite happy with the provider they are currently using ) .
- The pricing scheme of the phone is darn steep,if you ask me , considering competitive products out there which ARE available at various providers ( Nokia N95 ,Samsung I600 ) .
-from what I have read support by AT&T isn't exactly stellar ( not to mention getting your 300-page bill in a box ) .

- Apple planning to obtain exclusive contracts in Europe ( this software will prevent them getting away with that ) .



This is already the case in Europe.You can buy most phones without any sim-lock at all .

Yeah that would bas as cool as say oh some one unlocking the object desktop subscription so it can be installed on any computer... Hypocrites...

That's not even close to an accurate comparison...
Nay-sayers...

That's an invalid comparison.

First off, you can't magically copy off an iPhone and give it away for free (at least not yet ). Second, once you buy it, it's yours, and it is explicitly legal for you to unlock it to use on another carrier.

If you've signed a contract with AT&T for service, unlocking the phone doesn't magically get you out of the contract. You either have to pay the early termination fee, or pay on your plan until the contract expires. If you haven't activated and contracted with AT&T, then you don't owe them anything, and can do whatever you like with the iPhone.

There *may* be some grey areas in the law concerning selling the unlocking codes or tools, but the act of unlocking the phone, in itself, is legal.

Not to mention that there are quite a few clones in the pipeline.

This is all academic for me, since I'm not really interested in the iPhone, anyway (apart from some curiosity). My next phone will likely be the N95 (I do, however, buy all of my phones unlocked).

Additionally, your example of 'cracking' Object Desktop is also inaccurate. The serial number that allows you to download and update is tied to a particular person. While I imagine it would be possible for you to pass around these credentials, I suspect that it would be noticed at some point and invalidated. That kind of thing is why, for example, I prefer Stardock's version of software control and authentication to something like WGA.

An excellent post, Aleatoric. +1

apple's decision to lock the iPhone to one service provider is one of the stupidest economical decisions they could have made. yes they seeminlgy are making a lot of money on this based on the large amount of iphones they have sold, but just think of all the sales they forgoed by forcing users to have to use at&t - called implicit costs in the world of economics. im sure the implicit costs far outweigh what net income they make off the iphone.