‘It’s our job to stop them,’ CEO says in launching the device in Britain
Gillian Shaw
Sun
Unlock that iPhone at your peril. Or at least your wallet could be in peril if you order on eBay or head across the border to score one of Apple’s coveted iPhones and try to use it on a Canadian cellphone network.
That’s the plan of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who has promised to stamp out iPhones that have been unlocked by hackers to operate on networks outside of those that have deals with Apple.
In North America right now, that’s only AT&T in the United States.
Faced with a barrage of paid and free software available online that allows iPhone aficionados to use the phones on networks around the world, Jobs fired back by promising that Apple would try to outwit the hackers and render the hacked phones useless.
At the unveiling of the arrival of the iPhone in the United Kingdom, Jobs said: “It’s a cat-and-mouse game. We try to stay ahead. People will try to break in, and it’s our job to stop them breaking in.”
While Jobs didn’t spell out his battle plan, the expectation is that software updates could transform the unlocked iPhones into expensive bricks that won’t work on certain networks. And the warranties of the tampered phones would be useless.
The iPhone has flown right past Canada and into Europe, with Apple announcing launches in the U.K., France and Germany. In Canada, the phones would only work on GSM carriers Rogers and Fido, a division of Rogers, which so far haven’t formally indicated they will offer the iPhone any time soon.
Elizabeth Hamilton, corporate communications director with Rogers Wireless, said she is not aware of any Rogers or Fido dealers selling the iPhone in Canada.
“We do not unlock the iPhone. We do not unlock grey market devices,” she said.
Hamilton said there are certain codes and specifications that would tip a dealer off if someone was trying to activate an iPhone on the network.
While iPhone users have been boasting online about successfully activating their phones with Rogers or Fido, Hamilton said the company wouldn’t guarantee the quality of the service, nor offer technical support.
Some critics of Canada‘s high cellphone costs in comparison to other countries say data plan rates here are the major deterrent to iPhones.
“Rogers needs to not just look at their Canadian competitors, but also other GSM carriers in North America, which offer higher data usage plans with a lower monthly service fee,” reads an online petition entitled Rogers Canada iPhone Data Plan, which calls on Rogers to offer an unlimited data plan “at a reasonable price, comparable to those seen in the United States.”
In his blog, Michael Geist, Canada research chair of internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, points to the discrepancy in pricing between U.S. and Canadian carriers.
In the U.S., iPhone users with AT&T can get 450 anytime minutes (with unused minutes rolled over to the next month), 5,000 additional night and weekend minutes, and unlimited data for $59.99 US, which today is virtually the same in Canadian dollars. Geist cites prices for a comparable offering with Rogers, which offers no rollover of minutes, only 10 per cent of AT&T’s evening and weekend minutes, and only 500 MB of data with no unlimited data available — and totals $295 per month.
“The barrier to the iPhone in Canada is not Apple,” writes Geist. “Rather, it is the lack of wireless competition that, as now RIM and Google both note, leads to pricing that places Canadians at a significant disadvantage compared with other developed countries.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2007