Apple: iPhone Unlock Causes “Irreparable” Damage to iPhone’s Software
A statement from Apple today says that many unlocking method for the iPhone on the internet would cause “irreparable” damage to the device’s software:
Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone's software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.
My Take: Let’s look at two scenarios. Scenario 1: Apple release a firmware update and relocks many iPhones back to AT&T; and Scenario 2: Apple release a firmware and bricks many iPhones. Clearly Scenario 1 is better because even one doesn’t have the option of using AT&T(i.e. living in a different country), there would still most likely be a improved hack to reunlock the iPhone soon after that. And this scenario compare to Scenario 2, causes least amount of anger from iPhone buyers toward Apple. Therefore, I say that if Apple had a choice, it would choose to relock the iPhone instead of bricking it. And therefore, the release of today’s statement from Apple is a indication that Apple has no way(at least currently) of reversing the unlock process — the word they used, “irreparable”, implied such. However, based on the above, I would say that Apple would still avoid bricking the iPhone as much as possible, thus for the future, other than the most unlikely scenario of releasing a firmware update that would brick the iPhone, Apple would mostly likely be doing one(or both) of: continues to ignore the hacking community as it did for the Apple TV; or find a way to relock the iPhone — but that would mostly likely be quickly out-hacked by the hacking community.
Update Sept. 24, 2007 - 8:44PM PST
Apparently Phil Schiller of Apple wanted to make sure they’re not sending the wrong message and came out to clarify that the indent of the earlier statement made by Apple is not a warning for punishment(and it did sounded like one) but rather a disclaimer of responsibility.