Hi !

Does anyone know why apple doesn't simply lock out all non-legal-activated iPhones (by IMEI) from working with iTunes & the Apple store ?!
( or even letting iTunes do something evil to those iPhones ).

It must be soooo easy for them or am i missing something ??

Of course we would have to counter with blocking iTunes Internet access and or online patching that access, but i cannot see why apple doesn't try it ?

Greetings,

Ender

It would be rather hard to distinguish an unactivated purchased iphone that was to be used as a gift, and an unactivated purchased iphone that was unlocked. They could always ban the iTunes account linked, but that would really only disable access to the store.

Also, the ramifications of doing something that drastic would most likely have a very negative impact on how the public views Apple.

Wouldnt they be suied left right and center???

1. They would risk ending up in court in dozens of different territories.

2. They would irreparably damage their brand by upsetting so many loyal 'early adopters' - many with unlocked phones are in the position to do a lot of brand damage. Like myself, a lot live and work in the media.

3. Apple would cut off a revenue stream from iTunes that is generated by over 250,000 unlocked consumers, if reports are to be believed(?). Granted, they would have to be balance that against the revenue brought in from the exclusive network deal(s) but they have lost that already and by cutting them off they would potentially never get it back.

4. Why would the other networks (i.e. Vodafone, T-Mob UK and alike) without the iPhone exclusivity allow them to cut off their revenue stream from these aforementioned 250,000 legitimate SIM cards? Apple would be fighting in court for the next 10 years! Apple might be able to technically stop your iTunes account but they wouldn't, they are to greedy (as recent events show)... besides only one iPhone in a household sharing an iTunes account might be unlocked - what happens to the other 'legitimate' iPhone users?

5. Also and I think most importantly - They don't want to. This kind of viral community, generating continued discussion and excitement (positive and negative) is a marketeers dream. Have you spent anytime on the official Apple forum (yawn!) the unlocked community is what everyone is talking about. It's driving the iPhone brand / product forward. It's very very expensive to buy that kind of press. Also, the infamous 'Cat and Mouse' comment made the headlines worldwide, the UK launch date didn't make anywhere near as many column inches. Apple is anything but stupid when it comes to marketing their brand - all other brands look to Apple for inspiration in my experience...

For what it is worth, I think they'll try their hardest not to allow any more unlocked phones (on the scale of what has already be achieved) but they will not hurt the ones already here - that's not to say that they won't make our lives difficult but not in the media spotlight - as a deliberate iTunes attack would be.

Hi there,
lets hope Apple shares your thoughts...

jimwilx1:
4. --> i did not mean apple to disable our IMEIS for phone function i just meant for using iTunes and or doing evil to our phones via iTunes ! Obviously the providers have no interest in blocking IMEI to do apple a favour :-)


Greetings,

Ender

P.S. i nevertheless downgraded to iTunes 7.43, beeing paranoid :-)

I think they can´t relock your iPhone because iTunes send the EMEI only for activation to apple.

Well, you got the unlocked phone. They are upset. Now you say you want to pay them some more $$$s for songs. Why in the world they would not allow you to pay these money?

I'm sure that if they purposefully brick your phone without you clicking YES, they'll really be screwed by lawyers.

Right on the money! Apple put the iTunes icon on your SpringBoard for an obvious reason .

So the big question is: why bother?

It takes more effort to do that. Plus, you're talking about putting in something that is actually malicious?

When you're a manager in software development, before you put in a "feature", there's three things you must ask:
1) How long will it take to add?
2) What's the worse bug that can come out of it?
3) How much value do you get from this feature?

Let's see. If Apple just does a itunes music store app:
1) It'll take some time.
2) You can't buy stuff.
3) It's cool. People can buy stuff if they want, on the go.

And... if we add a restriction that allows only phones activated normally:
1) It'll take the amount of time to make the app as before, plus the amount of time to figure out a way to identify phones that are arn't activated normally, plus the amount of time to test that this doesn't hurt normal users. Plus, somehow get access to the info to verify that the phone is good. (what, you think the iphone division has access to activation logs? uh, no.)
2) People who should have been able to use your cool new store app, can't.
3) Less people think your app is cool.

Gee. Make the app that people like, versus make the app that could piss off more people and waste time and money. I think it's easy to see why.

Originally Posted by enderffx

Hi !

Does anyone know why apple doesn't simply lock out all non-legal-activated iPhones (by IMEI) from working with iTunes & the Apple store ?!
( or even letting iTunes do something evil to those iPhones ).

It must be soooo easy for them or am i missing something ??

Of course we would have to counter with blocking iTunes Internet access and or online patching that access, but i cannot see why apple doesn't try it ?

Greetings,

Ender

how would apple blacklist your imei if they have nothing to do with the phone service? i dont know how they would convince your service provider to blacklist a loyal customer.