I must confess that I was originally interested in the iPhone but was immediately turned off by the 2-year contract it demands with AT&T. A few months passed and rebels managed to release it off its AT&T shackles by unlocking it for others. Louis Armstrong said it best: “What a Wonderful World”.
Since it first came out, people immediately tried to crack the safe and unlock this brand new, wonderful gadget. At this time, I was expecting mass media frenzy on the legal consequences involved in it, but instead read an overabundance of articles about a teenager facing a fine and imprisonment for filming 20 second of transformers (Consumerist). It seems that AT&T allowed people to try to unlock, but as soon as the iPhone was unlocked, the guns started blazing (Gizmodo and Business 2.0). For those that are somewhat interested but concerned about the legalities of the unlocking of the iPhone, Engadget tried to help you Know Your Rights.
So was the unlocking of the iPhone premeditated, is Apple actually encouraging it?
I think so. This collaboration of people throughout to solve this mystery is intriguing and freeing, not including the wonderful free press it gathers. How could this possibly be bad for Apple? In this situation, this one product brought hackers to break a code, developers to create applications, and people that do not even own an iPhone (yours truly) to write about it. Apple is creating a platform for others to build upon, but making it worthwhile by the intermediate obstacle course it created.
Should individuals be allowed to unlock the iPhone and choose their carriers, or not?
CNBC mentioned that while AT&T may be extremely angry at this unlocking, Apple may not be too concerned. Why is that? They expect to sell as many as a million iPhones in the next few months. It is much easier now that it is not locked for one carrier only.
The video is of the teenager (geohot) who has rose to the challenge and unlocked the iPhone.
