Apple and at&t had a deal, why must the hackers ruin it?
That must be what the executives over at at&t are saying. I mean, they had a deal with Apple to make the iPhone exclusive to the at&t cell phone network and now hackers all over the world are unlocking the iPhone!
The law is not exactly on at&t’s side either. Some exceptions were made to the DMCA last year specifically to allow owners of cell phones to unlock the device. Hacking a phone to illegally use a carrier’s network is still illegal but that was never the goal of iPhone hackers. iPhone hackers have only one goal in mind, to free the iPhone from the lock that at&t and Apple added to the device to secure an exclusive two year contract between the two parties.
Already we have news of a kid, who unlocked an iPhone, trading the iPhone (and his skills) for a new car and a job.
Right now the focus is on getting the iPhone to work with T-Mobile, who uses the same network system as at&t. Several groups have already done this and provided photographical evidence to many in the media.
So, how have the stocks of at&t and Apple fared with this recent news?
at&t 5 day
Apple 5 day
Looking at these two charts we can see that when the big news hit on Friday about the unlocked iPhones both stocks began to slide. Do you know why that is? It is because not only did Apple get a big chunk of change up front from at&t but they also stand to gain via a revenue share agreement! If the iPhone gets unlocked how can they collect? Even worse is the thought that foreign cell phone companies may bail on signing such agreements once they see how easy it is to hack the iPhone and put any old SIM card in that the consumer wants!
Some legal experts think that Apple and at&t will use the DMCA to put these hackers in their place but, like I said earlier, a change was made last year to allow consumers the right to unlock their phones as long as they are not doing so to get free service.
At this stage of the game Apple stands to lose a lot more stock value than at&t does. If this happened after all of the foreign markets were tied down via contracts it would not be as bad for Apple. Coming now it is real bad. I expect Apple stock to continue to decline. If they call out the lawyers rather than figure out a software fix it will get even worse for them.
Why is that? Because a software fix says Apple is in charge while a court battle says that they have already lost. Apple hit $148 back in July 2007 and they have been falling ever since. I had planned to get out at $140 but I rode it up to $145 and started kicking myself. Now that I’m out I can honestly say that I made my money and I’m happy.
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