Apple’s Turn For Double Standards

Posted on September 25, 2007
Filed Under Uncategorized |

A few months ago Steve Jobs told the music industry that they should give up DRM. Today Apple is defending it’s right to lock content, in this case the software on the iPhone:

Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty. The permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone’s warranty.

Here’s the basic problem with locked handsets: you bought it so you own it, not the carrier. A carrier, in this case AT&T, subsidizes the purchase of the handset, which in this case they do not, in exchange for a term contract guaranteeing a financial return that offsets the subsidy. Because you and I pay for those handsets we should be free to use them on any network of our choosing. You would object if you car only accepted gas pump nozzles from Chevron, right?

What happpens if I don’t want to use my $500 handset with AT&T anymore, and I’ve met the obligations of my contract? Well according to Apple, I’m SOL despite the fact that there are no technical obstacles to using any GSM handset on any GSM network providing they are frequency matched, which most modern handsets are because the manufacturers surely don’t want their handsets limited to a single network.

Apple is wrong on this issue and given the long precedent of carriers providing unlock codes on request I think Apple may be setting itself up for a consumer class action lawsuit in the future. Furthermore, when Apple goes to Europe they will offer unlocked handsets because it is illegal to do otherwise. This puts Apple in the position of restricting usage for American consumers only and doing it in collusion with AT&T, who I am sure is ecstatic that the handset YOU OWN won’t work on competitor’s networks.

Jobs astutely recognized the futility of continuing to provide mechanisms to lock it down music content yet he clings to the notion that he alone can lock down their newest favorite son the iPhone. Wrong wrong wrong, Steve Jobs is wrong.

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