The title says it all. Before Apple has even started shipping the updated 1.1.2 firmware, it seems some people have been able to unlock (=Jailbreak) it. Kudos to these people, but I just can’t help wondering how long Apple will be able to keep this game running. Eventually they must (??) understand that keeping the platform too locked down is generating significant badwill. And with something like 25% of all iPhones being unlocked, why not just accept the fact that people want to install their own apps?
True, there is an SDK coming that will allow for third party, native apps.
The answer probably lies in the fact that Apple gets a piece of the revenue generated by AT&T and other carriers offering the iPhone. Recent numbers indicate that Apple gets USD 18/month from AT&T for each iPhone user in the US!! With 1+ million iPhones sold in US alone (probably 1.25 by now?), and 200k estimated before end of year in UK, this is big money for Apple. Even if they wanted to open up the platform for third party apps, the operators wouldn’t like that and Apple would loose some significant, low-risk revenue.
Finally: The image showing an unlocked 1.1.2 also shows 14 GB memory – but the iPhone comes in a maximum of 8 GB, to my knowledge. So this may very well be a Photoshop job. Still, it is probably just a matter of days before the real 1.1.2 firmware is hacked.
[Edit: Now that was a very late night post done by a brain which had already called it a day.... as some people correctly pointed out, the image clearly says it is an iPod Touch. Which comes in 16GB version. My mistake - me bad]
