PDF Version

Technological Hostage-Taking

23rd January, 2012 - Posted by Wolf Paul - No Comments

The Nonsense that is Apple Computer’s iBusiness Model

After a long wait it finally arrived: the untethered jailbreak for Apple’s iOS 5 running on devices based on their newest CPU chip, A5, the iPhone 4S and the iPad2 — and I spent a long evening and part of this morning applying the jailbreak to my devices and setting them up again to my satisfaction. Judging by the sluggish response of all related websites and file repositories, I was not the only one or one of a few, but one among thousands out there finally hoping to restore essential functionality to their Apple devices.

The amount of efort that goes into this battle of wits between Apple and the iOS “hacker” community is incredible, and is actually a real waste of time and energy on both sides.

At the base of it is Apple’s business model of wishing to not just sell hardware devices, but to control the entire software market for these devices by making it impossible (well, at least very difficult) to install and run any software on them which has not been obtained from their own Appstore. In the eyes of many this business model amounts to technological hostage-taking, especially considering the price of the hardware, and this has naturally sparked attempts to free the hostages, i.e. jailbreak them. I admit that I, too, find it offensive that having sold me a piece of equipment costing close to $1000
Apple now wants to dictate to me what software I may and may not run on it. Fortunately the courts (in the US) have stopped Apple’s attempts to criminalize those who engage in jailbreaking.

As much as this rankles it would probably not be enough to motivate me and many other users of Apple’s hardware products to go to the risk and effort of jailbreaking if Apple were not so anal about what apps and extensions it will allow in its Appstore, and if their decision makers didn’t set up themselves and their own preferences as the ultimate arbiters of what features to offer and instead listened more to the user community (the worst offender in this regard was the late founder of Apple, Steve Jobs). Let me give you some examples.

When I got my iPad2 about a year ago, with iOS 4 running on it, a jailbreak was readily available, which permitted me to then install software to do the following:

• place the icons on the device closer together, thus fitting more icons on each home screen

• install a keyboard extension with a fifth row of keys, thus allowing entry of mixed alphanumeric text without constantly switching between alpha and numeric mode

• install an OpenVPN client to access a number of the private LANs where I help out with system administration

• pull down a settings menu permitting me to quickly toggle such things as WIFI, auto-rotation, Bluetooth, etc. even while in an app

• install an app to automatically forward text messages (SMS), both incoming and outgoing, to an e-mail address

None of these features are available as part of iOS or as add-ons from the Appstore, and there is no good technical reason for this fact — the only reason is Apple’s “We know what you need” approach to customer satisfaction.

It took Apple all the way to the release of the fourth generation of iPhones (the iPhone 3GS) to provide the capability of “cut and paste” in its text apps — and this from the company that boasts of having invented the mouse and point-and-click user interfaces (a dubious claim, but that’s another story). The only way of getting this pretty essential feature before that time was to jailbreak the device and install an extension from one of the “open” repositories.

The late Mr. Jobs was furious about the success of the competing Android operating system, but instead of learning from its success what users really want, Apple is in the process of trying to put makers of Android devices out of business by a flurry of lawsuits in countries all across the world.

Of course, even if Apple were to be more open in what apps and extensions it allows in the Appstore, there would still be those motivated to try and jailbreak each new release of iOS, and there would still be those who would anxiously wait for the release day of such a jailbreak, but there would also be a lot more customers who would be satisfied with what Apple offers and would not consider it worth their while to mess with their device.

But I have little hope of that happening — everything points in the direction of Apple moving towards locking down it’s Mac personal computers in a similar fashion. And the folks at Microsoft are taking their cues from Apple — there are indications of attempts to lock down Windows PCs to prevent the installation of alternate, i.e. Open Source, operating systems on them.

I bought my iDevices and my Mac, they are mine, and it is entirely up to me what software I want to run on them. The only MORAL and ETHICAL way Apple could attempt to restrict my rights would be to provide their hardware for free or at a vastly reduced (i.e. subsidized) price in return for locking the customer into their Appstore. But even that would not work too well. Recently Amazon gave up its attempt to lock buyers of their $200 Kindle Fire into their app store and in a release update added the capability to install other software.

People will not long submit to being held hostage by technology vendors, and so I will continue, with good conscience but also with a good deal of annoyance at Apple, to follow the expoits of the iPhone Dev Team and other jailbreaking groups and individuals.

Share on Facebook