Is Apple Even Trying to Lock iPhones?

Apple and the iPhone hackers have been going at it for quite some time with the updates and the patches that break them. The latest installment of this sage which took place over the course of this weekend when Apple's latest update was broken, apparently with minimal effort, has people wondering just what is the company playing at.

Apple's updates, besides improving security and adding new features also break the modifications made to the devices. While this is normal and to be expected, the fact that Apple can't actually manage to keep the device the way they want for more than a few hours is making the company look bad. Hackers continue to jailbreak the devices, restoring them to their open state, and the amount of time it takes them indicates that doing so is not an overly complex matter. There are only two possible explanations: either the hackers are far better at this than Apple is, which would be a little hard to believe considering the size of the company and the people it has employed; or Apple is only symbolically breaking the hacks.

The people who really want an open iPhone will likely go to great lengths to get one, so building very complex locks is not likely to stop them. On the other hand, the number of these people is so small to be negligible. What Apple really wants is to make it a bother for everyday people to modify their iPhones, which it is achieving quite well. Jailbreaking has become so easy anyone can do it, however, having to do it all over again every time you update the iPhone can quickly become a nuisance. This way Apple can steer the majority of people towards a pristine iPhone setup, while still leaving the hardcore modding fans to their own designs, and everybody is happy.