14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone 7 users have now the possibility to unlock their devices so as to be able to install on them applications that otherwise would not be available for them, courtesy of a small unlock tool called ChevronWP7.
The solution was announced as being available yesterday, but it seems that some already suggest that its availability might result in a series of piracy issues.
According to the application's developers, the tool was aimed at offering users the possibility to easily load homebrew applications on their Windows Phone 7 devices, and not at enabling them pirate various applications that were added to the Marketplace.
The story is a simple one. While Microsoft has limited the installation of applications on Windows Phone 7 devices to the solutions included in the Marketplace, the tool is aimed at expanding the available options to apps that would not make it to the app store otherwise.
However, as stated above, some suggested that the new unlocking tool might be used only for piracy purposes, though the team that developed the tool claims that things are actually different.
“There’s been a few misguided rumors/claims surrounding the ChevronWP7 Unlocker on the issue of application piracy. We’d like to take a moment to lay out the facts,” they state.
According to them, the purpose of this app was “to enable and create WP7 homebrew applications that cannot be submitted to the Marketplace in the first place.”
“Our tool only enables functionality inside every Windows Phone 7 device designed and implemented by Microsoft. We do not make any modifications to the operating system,” the team notes.
According to them, unlocking this capability on Windows Phone 7 devices is not similar with piracy.
“Unlocking and piracy are mutually exclusive All Marketplace application XAP packages are sufficiently protected so that you cannot sideload to run them on any unlocked device (official or with our tool). We have no intentions or knowledge to break that protection. (You can still run legitimately purchased and downloaded applications after unlocking)”
Moreover, they note that, being developers themselves, they understand and “value the financial incentives of app development.”
Of course, Windows Phone 7 is not the only mobile operating system that comes to the market with certain limitations, nor will it be the last one, and tools like this one will certainly keep on coming.
ChevronWP7 is available for download here.