As a Verizon customer looking longingly through the shop window at an iPhone, (love the phone, hate the cell service) this Mediapost missive made me sit up and take notice:
Now, it looks as if somewhere around 1 million phones have been unlocked without authorization. Of the 3.7 million sold by Apple, only 2 million have been activated by AT&T. The wireless company is believed to hold around half a million, but that still leaves more than 1 million phones missing.
Wow. Where’d they go? Speculation is that yeah, a few of ’em have been hacked for other carriers (workarounds started to appear within days of the iPhone’s release after all), but most of them have been put into play overseas – far beyond any spotty AT & T coverage map, as it were. Huh. Another example of the global economy – both legal, gray, and black – at work. Apple’s attempts to block/lock/and “freeze” iPhones seems to be having the same effect as those RIAA lawsuits are having on P2P file-sharing, too: Or, as Wendy Davis suggest:
Perhaps Apple could escalate the software battle, but it seems inevitable that more workarounds would follow. In the meantime, it would make sense for the company to focus on forging new wireless deals that will result in more choices for consumers.
Roedeo Productions 