Gems Sty

Prayers of fans worldwide has been answered – the Apple iPhone has finally been fully unlocked (with just software, no hardware modifications at all) from the AT&T Carrier, and can now be used with any carriers worldwide. Of course this isn’t a turnabout on Apple or AT&T’s management decision – rather it’s the result of weeks of sleep deprivation, code cracking, head scratching and clever programming from hackers.

Engadget here has the full documentation  right here – the people who did it are here. They have not released the software publicly yet – judging from their website they seemed intent on making a quick buck via licensing or selling the unlocking software – but I’m as certain that it will eventually be free (if you can unlock the iPhone, others can unlock your software).

So Apple and AT&T executives would lose some sleep – and are perhaps already furiously working on patches to cover this loophole. But as we can see from hardware-software-locked examples like the PSP, you’re (almost) certainly never going to win. Sony tried to patch up their firmware from custom-firmwares and even throwing in incentives for users to upgrade, but they still failed every time to get it secured. In my opinion, iPhone will be no different.

Perhaps it’s also time to think – now that the cat is out of the bag, how could each stakeholder make the best out of the situation?