Apple Bites Back At Phone Hackers

I knew it was only a matter of time before Apple officially responded to the unlocking of the iPhone. Obviously the company, which has an exclusive deal with AT&T for American cell phone service, isn’t interested in seeing their product hacked to be used on other networks. Now their response has come and it’s as harsh as we expected it to be, which is to say, not very harsh at all.

The statement from Apple declares that unlocking iPhones through software programs can cause damage to the iPhone’s software that may permanently render the phone inoperable when future updates are downloaded from Apple. Of course, this probably means that Apple’s future updates are specifically looking for these software alterations and setting out to defeat them, but let’s not split hairs here: your hacking will render your iPhone useless.

In fact, The Wall Street Journal points out that such an endeavor is highly likely and that, when asked, Apple CEO Steve Jobs stated that doing such was “a cat-and-mouse game,” and that ”We have a lot of really good cats.”

Of course, hackers intentionally altering the iPhone may not be very concerned about missing out on future updates, although it might cost them some functionality. Most of them knew the risks when they got into hacking the iPhone in the first place anyway. But it wouldn’t be Apple if they didn’t issue some sort of threat to protect their deal with AT&T and their product line. It may keep the less brave hackers from altering their iPhones, but for the most part it’s going to have all the force of a harshly worded letter.