The Benefits of Unlocking Iphones

April 08, 2010

Few people - even the might Apple guru, Steve Jobs - knew just what an earth-shaking event the introduction of the iPhone was in 2007. This amazing device combined the features of several different products into a single compact personal computing unit. It was "Star Trek's" tricorder and communicator all in one little box.

It was also locked. Big time locked. Locked into AT&T as its carrier.

However, humans are nothing if not inventive. Just as the iPhone put computing power for entertainment, business tools and connectivity into people's hands, it tried to control that power by limiting access through a single carrier. Naturally phone geeks around the world would rise to such a challenge.

While nobody can be sure there was a secret underground consultation of techno wizards, since iPhone's introduction three years ago some impressive solutions - such as MyUnlock Iphone -- have arisen to break the chains binding the device.

Apple products are popular around the world. They are also proprietary and more than a little pricey. As one man said when confronted with the price of a new 3GS iPhone: "They're proud of their work." And why shouldn't they be? All the same, it seems incongruous to lots of Apple users that the device that opened the world of personal computing to a new era should be locked into a single provider for a minimum of 6 months. Leave the carrier, leave the iPhone.

What's more, that single provider lock was keeping people in America from using their iPhones anywhere in the world. People in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and South America would love to have an iPhone they could operate with a local carrier's SIM card. Why only read about this cool tool in these places? Don't they deserve to have global smartphone access as well?

With a few months, a solution appeared: ways to unlock the iPhone. Skeptics pooh-poohed the idea, believing in the control of the Almighty Apple. However, the benefits to unlocking iPhones eventually began to outweigh the risks.

For example, there are several alternatives for unlocking an iPhone. Many of these require a technical expert with a degree in magic. Either that, or smartphone owners need to go to Geek School themselves; in other words, they had to be willing to invest long hours in unlocking the software, the bootloader and the SSH access. Too often, the result was destroyed software and an unusable smartphone. People began to be leery of trying to unlock their iPhones on their own.

A better alternative soon emerged: special software, such as MyUnlock Iphone, that can unlock or "jailbreak" an iPhone. What's more, with the membership that typically goes along with this software, it's possible to unlock as many devices as the owner wishes.
This software alternative has become a real deal. For somewhere between $20 and $30, smartphone owners can now open up their iPhones to a whole new world of functionality. Unlocking the phone allows the owner to run third-party applications, known as "apps," on a phone that previously was limited to expensive Apple programs. These programs frequently improve the phone's performance in many areas. Plus it lays the groundwork for new kinds of services available through smartphones everywhere.