Apple promises to lock down evil hackers

STEVE JOBS has finally come out and said what his friends in the mobile industry must have been begging him to - that Apple will start to actively clamp down on those crazy folks who have unlocked their Iphones.

Taking questions at yesterday's London Apple store event, Jobs told the assembled hacks: "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."

So far, Steve hasn't done a very good job. Version 7.4 of Itunes introduced downloadable ringtones for the phone, which cost 99 cents on top of the 99 cents already paid for the song. This was hacked to allow for free ringtones to be added to the phone. Version 7.4.1 was brought out, and this broke the free ringtones hack, but the hack was back in place before a day was passed. Version 7.4.2 was pushed out earlier this week, which again attempted to secure Apple's ringtone revenue through breaking unauthorised ringtones, but was again hacked hours later. Oh dear.

Whilst many have pointed out that unlocking the Iphone to allow for operation on different networks would surely result in more sales, thus being good for El Stevo, the boys from Cappuccino actually take a large cut of the consumer's monthly bill from their anointed carrier - AT&T in the States, O2 here - meaning that much of the profit is delivered over the two year ownership period, rather than just on the handset.

As for the networks themselves, AT&T has been pressuring Apple to lock down the handset, which is a big cause of network switch in the States. When theirs is the only network with Iphone, theirs becomes a far more attractive proposition than it would otherwise be. Although that's not saying much, when it comes to AT&T.

There are only a limited number of ways to lock down the handset once it has been unlocked, and for Apple to keep pushing firmware updates to the phone is going to be a pain in the butt for bona fide consumers. Apple has to tread the line between locking down and annoying everyone else - and, unfortunately, its finite team of engineers is working against the combined might of the interweb. Who fancies their chances? µ