Apple: Unlocking the iPhone causes damage

In answer to the recent flurry of activity surrounding the unlocking of the diminutive touch-screen iPhone, California-based Apple Inc. has revealed that users seeking to utilise the various programs capable of opening the iPhone to any given service provider are running the risk of damaging their devices beyond repair. epa01112015 Apple Inc. has revealed that a new software update due for the iPhone could potentially render 'unlocked' handsets inoperable. EPA/KAY NIETFELD

epa01112015 Apple Inc. has revealed that a new software update due for the iPhone could potentially render 'unlocked' handsets inoperable. EPA/KAY NIETFELDSpecifically, Apple is warning iPhone owners that once an official Apple software update has been installed on the device, any software application designed to unlock it from exclusive (US) carrier AT&T, could potentially see the iPhone "becoming permanently inoperable."While some may see the Apple update as a way to quickly and quietly quash the new wave of unlock-friendly software, such as iPhoneSIMfree, Phil Shiller, the company’s head of worldwide product marketing, has told Reuters that: "We are not doing anything proactively to disable iPhones that have been hacked or unlocked." In terms of current unlocking programs that will likely see the iPhone failing to operate (which will also leave users subsequently lumbered with a voided warranty), Schiller revealed that iUnlock and Anysim are the most likely culprits to inspire operational damage once the iPhone’s own software has been updated.Apple has said via an official statement that it plans to release the software update towards the end of this week, but it’s possible that iPhone owners with unlocked handsets will simply choose to avoid installing it until the hacking community offers up a hack to counter its potential effects – something that may take only a matter of days.Since its launch on June 29 in the United States, the Apple iPhone has surged past the 1 million unit sales point and is due to arrive in France, Germany, and Great Britain at the end of the year on three separate exclusive carrier contracts. The iPhone is carried exclusively in the US by AT&T, which signs its customers to a mandatory 2-year contract.

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George MiltonSep 28th, 2007 - 23:21:01

Apple should take care not to follow Sony down the blind alley that is customer hostile hardwaer control by way of updates, brick patches and rootkits. This is a sure way to cut your future profits to a small fraction of what they would have been had you not alienated your fans and buyers of your products.

Sony PSP would have sold ten times as many units and laid the groundwork for many more success stories for Sony but they choose to do what AT&T and Xerox did with early PC's customize and treat them as if they OWNED the product and not the BUYER. If I buy it it is ME who owns it. Your updates are a courtesy you provide ME and not an invitation for you to rootkit my life!

Seller BEWARE! The future you rescue may be YOUR OWN!

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alSep 30th, 2007 - 18:48:37

steve jobs = Peadophile

Just saying.

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