Apple on iPhone Unlocking: Just Say No

By Geoff Duncan
September 24, 2007

Apple has a warning to folks using third-party software to unlock their iPhones: kiss your warranties goodbye.

As software-only announced its partnership with O2 to bring iPhones to the UK, the world got a taste of it when, in response to a reporters' question, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Apple would fight back against hacks that unlocked the iPhone, even as he acknowledged it meant Apple engaging in a cat-and-mouse exercise to keep up with hackers.

Now, as the company prepares to release an iPhone update which (among other things) enables new features—including the much-touted iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store—the company has issued a terse statement drawing a line in the sand: users who unlock their iPhones void their warranties, and may wind up turning their precious devices into inoperable bricks. The statement issued today reads as follows:

CUPERTINO, Calif., Sept. 24 -- Apple has discovered that many of theunauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet causeirreparable damage to the iPhone's software, which will likely result inthe modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a futureApple-supplied iPhone software update is installed. Apple plans torelease the next iPhone software update, containing many new featuresincluding the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store (http://www.itunes.com), laterthis week. Apple strongly discourages users from installing unauthorizedunlocking programs on their iPhones. Users who make unauthorizedmodifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhonesoftware license agreement and void their warranty. The permanentinability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is notcovered under the iPhone's warranty.

iPhone unlockers can't say they haven't been warned.