What threat does an iPhone hacker pose to Apple?

OI

I hope I'm not addressing a tabu subject here.

We know that apple are control freaks. Through the App store and iTunes, they control the content and music we consume on a daily basis. The same applies to the ipad. It's another format on which to feed us the content they want. Except now it also does books. They can delete books at will as amazon did recently with animal farm and 1984. They can refuse to 'stock' certain publishing houses etc etc.

Cydis usurps this control, it is a saviour for some. Apple have thus far failed to control jailbreaking and Cydia etc. And the iPhone, because of it's computing power and market share attracts the hacking community. But do they pose a threat to the actual app store and iTunes and apples vehicles for providing content, will they become a major player in the smartphone game, can they even become legitimate like say napster.

What other risks might they pose? Just thought it could make for interesting discussion.

cnocbui

A tiny fringe community of mosquitos is not going to bother an elephant much, let alone pose a threat.

seamus

Napster was a success because it provided a very clear benefit (free music) without requiring much effort and at very little risk. You could just install it and away you went.

Jailbreaking/hacking doesn't really have the same darws. There's no clear benefit for the unsavvy user - the appstore has pretty much everything you want. And jailbreaking requires some technological savvy, a little bit of effort (it's not something you install and it just *works*) and it presents (in some people's minds) a risk of bricking your €300 smartphone.

So until the jailbreaking community can provide a jailbreaker that's an install-and-go affair, regardless of OS level or phone type, with no risk of bricking the phone, it can't catch on in any major way. Your Joe Soap who knows how to install itunes and sync it with his phone, expects jailbreaking to be an affair where you connect your phone, hit a big "Jailbreak" button and 20 seconds later you unplug it and you're done.

Leiva

seamus wrote: »

Your Joe Soap who knows how to install itunes and sync it with his phone, expects jailbreaking to be an affair where you connect your phone, hit a big "Jailbreak" button and 20 seconds later you unplug it and you're done.

"Blackra1n" jailbreak pretty much does this , replace the " jailbreak" button you suggest with the provided "make it rain" button and 15 secs (not 20) your jailbroken .
There are other factors alright that Joe Soap might not understand pre jailbreak (tethered , firmware , bootrom etc etc ) but jailbreaking has never been easier .

As for the number of jailbroken phones .... The latest info available Dated July '09)
suggest that close to 9% of iPhones are jailbroken .
I would say this figure is now up considerably ,(with the help of Geohots blackra1n ) also the whole jailbreak / hack community is getting bigger by the day , and is still in is infancy.

Cydia (Saurik) server now has close to 500,000 ECID shsh files stored as backup for its users , thats 500k+ jailbreakers who can at least use firmware 3.x for the life span of their phone , so if Apple finally release a unjailbreakable (what a word) firmware than these users have a fall back .
Thats a big loss of revenue to iTunes if all of these users have cracked Apps etc , and this figure is growing by the hour .

iPhones , Smartphones & jailbreaking are still in their early stages , I predict the next 36 to 48 months you will see some Security changes that will be fundamental in the future outlook for all .

My 2 pence worth
M.

OI

Thanks mixed nuts, that makes for some really interesting reading. And actually, there was a more recent post on that particular site which updates the figure of jailbroken phones to 9.5%.

http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/iphone-jailbreak/percentage-of-iphone-jailbreak-users-rising-at-almost-10

Jailbreaking gets loads of publicity. As an iPhone user, it's almost impossible to avoid. Step by step instructions make it easy to jailbreak and unlock but then I have to admit I didn't expect cydia to look the way it did. It was too technical for me at my current level of technical know how. But again there are step by step guides for winterboard etc.

It's interesting to see the hacking community growing. Saurik is a celebrity. I just find the whole area fascinating and I think it could be the greatest area of uncertainty for the control freaks.

OI