Locking down the iPhone
A while ago I wrote a post in defense of Apple's TPM. I defined the bright line between "good DRM" and "bad DRM" as the difference between "optional DRM" and "compulsory DRM". (Some disagreed, and I respect your arguments.) In an optional-DRM system you can use your device however you want. Your can play DRM'ed media if you have a good reason, but your device never has to touch a DRM-encumbered file unless you want it to.
Apple has generally been very good about this. New and open Macintosh hardware can run Windows or Linux, iPods can play any MP3 or AAC file, AppleTV will play any YouTube or MP4/h.264 video file. Their software and media offerings (iTunes) are also valuable, but they add to an inherently valuable system. Apple's products are inherently valuable because they are inherently useful, and they are more inherently useful than others because they embrace open architectures and open standards. From the GCC compiler at the heart of XCode and commodity x86 hardware to the XWindows server and CUPS printer drivers in OSX, Apple's new populartity and resurgence is largely due to the inherent usefulness that comes from openness and transparency.
...Until the iPhone, that is. Apple's iPhone is the first product that Apple sells which is not inherently useful. Unless you activate it with an AT&T SIM and service contract all you've got is a shiny brick. This is nothing new - locked phones are commonplace in the mobile phone marketplace, but the typical explanation is that the phones are locked because the price has been subsidized by the carrier. If you buy a Sidekick, TMobile gives you $150 off if you sign a 2-year contract and they recoup the $150 over the life of the contract. If you terminate the contract early they charge you a penalty and get their money back that way. In contrast, the iPhone isn't subsidized. AT&T doesn't give anyone a dime toward an iPhone but AT&T still charges $175 to cancel the contract. This seems to me like a movie theater charging $10 to see a movie and $25 if you try to walk out early.
Apple is also not allowing thid party application development - no AIM, no SSH, no Skype, no NES emulator, no new skins or screens - possibly because they've signed a faustian bargain with AT&T preventing customers from doing anything that might distract you from using up your minutes and text messages. This is why the iPhone Dev Team started up. Their work provides the iPhone with the inherent usefulness and value missing from Apple's original product. Until this week you could activate your iPhone without an AT&T SIM, use the phone with your existing Tmobile account or home wireless network, or install and run applications. This week, Apple's 1.1.1 firmware update broke many of these features. I would be OK with this normally. The hacks are just that - hacks - and you can't expect unsupported features to work reliably. I'm also OK with Apple voiding the warranties of people who choose to hack their iPhones as long as the hacks are responsible for the malfunctions in compliance with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
Unfortunately Apple seems to be going a bit further. The newest iPod Nanos use a cryptographic hash to prevent iPods from working with anything except iTunes, making it less useful to legitimate customers. New iPhone firmware apparently uses a new encryption and signature system to prevent third party development, making it less useful to legitimate customers, and it's textbook stupid evil. If you are spending your R&D budget to make your products less useful to legitimate end users there is something wrong with your business model and I hope your company or division fails. (In fairness, this curse includes my employer's PSP firmware and Blu-Ray region locking product divisions.)
This is why I cancelled my order for an iPod Touch and why I donated $50 from that cancelled order to the iPhone Dev Team (PayPal: iphone.devteam@gmail.com) when the phone-relocking 1.1.1 firmware was released. Apple is not making products which are useful or valuable to me. The Dev Team is working to make the iPhone useful, and my donation recognizes that if I ever buy an iPhone it will be because of the Dev Team's effort more than Apple's.
Update: I am glad to see that Nokia knows an opportunity to make hay when it sees one.
Update 2: The Meizu M8 seems to be a solution for people who want an iPhone-like device which can run user-installed apps.
Apple has generally been very good about this. New and open Macintosh hardware can run Windows or Linux, iPods can play any MP3 or AAC file, AppleTV will play any YouTube or MP4/h.264 video file. Their software and media offerings (iTunes) are also valuable, but they add to an inherently valuable system. Apple's products are inherently valuable because they are inherently useful, and they are more inherently useful than others because they embrace open architectures and open standards. From the GCC compiler at the heart of XCode and commodity x86 hardware to the XWindows server and CUPS printer drivers in OSX, Apple's new populartity and resurgence is largely due to the inherent usefulness that comes from openness and transparency.
...Until the iPhone, that is. Apple's iPhone is the first product that Apple sells which is not inherently useful. Unless you activate it with an AT&T SIM and service contract all you've got is a shiny brick. This is nothing new - locked phones are commonplace in the mobile phone marketplace, but the typical explanation is that the phones are locked because the price has been subsidized by the carrier. If you buy a Sidekick, TMobile gives you $150 off if you sign a 2-year contract and they recoup the $150 over the life of the contract. If you terminate the contract early they charge you a penalty and get their money back that way. In contrast, the iPhone isn't subsidized. AT&T doesn't give anyone a dime toward an iPhone but AT&T still charges $175 to cancel the contract. This seems to me like a movie theater charging $10 to see a movie and $25 if you try to walk out early.
Apple is also not allowing thid party application development - no AIM, no SSH, no Skype, no NES emulator, no new skins or screens - possibly because they've signed a faustian bargain with AT&T preventing customers from doing anything that might distract you from using up your minutes and text messages. This is why the iPhone Dev Team started up. Their work provides the iPhone with the inherent usefulness and value missing from Apple's original product. Until this week you could activate your iPhone without an AT&T SIM, use the phone with your existing Tmobile account or home wireless network, or install and run applications. This week, Apple's 1.1.1 firmware update broke many of these features. I would be OK with this normally. The hacks are just that - hacks - and you can't expect unsupported features to work reliably. I'm also OK with Apple voiding the warranties of people who choose to hack their iPhones as long as the hacks are responsible for the malfunctions in compliance with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
Unfortunately Apple seems to be going a bit further. The newest iPod Nanos use a cryptographic hash to prevent iPods from working with anything except iTunes, making it less useful to legitimate customers. New iPhone firmware apparently uses a new encryption and signature system to prevent third party development, making it less useful to legitimate customers, and it's textbook stupid evil. If you are spending your R&D budget to make your products less useful to legitimate end users there is something wrong with your business model and I hope your company or division fails. (In fairness, this curse includes my employer's PSP firmware and Blu-Ray region locking product divisions.)
This is why I cancelled my order for an iPod Touch and why I donated $50 from that cancelled order to the iPhone Dev Team (PayPal: iphone.devteam@gmail.com) when the phone-relocking 1.1.1 firmware was released. Apple is not making products which are useful or valuable to me. The Dev Team is working to make the iPhone useful, and my donation recognizes that if I ever buy an iPhone it will be because of the Dev Team's effort more than Apple's.
Update: I am glad to see that Nokia knows an opportunity to make hay when it sees one.
Update 2: The Meizu M8 seems to be a solution for people who want an iPhone-like device which can run user-installed apps.