The problem with Apple's tactics

To paraphrase Star Wars: "The more you tighten your grip, Mr Jobs, the more iPhone users will slip through your fingers."

Apple's grip on cell phone users has always been tight - the company dictates what network the phone can be used with and what applications can be installed - but its recent crackdown on software that unlocks the iPhone has resulted in new levels of bad customer service from the California-based company.

Apple's newest tactic involves an update, v 1.1.1, that disables "unlocked" phones, effectively turning the iPhone into what has been dubbed the iBrick. Unlocking the phone also voids the warranty, which means that once users have unlocked the iPhone, there is no going back. One Apple representative reportedly said that the solution for customers is to "buy another iPhone". I'm sure many users will be comforted by the fact that the iPhone is now $200 less than when they bought it the first time.

Why is there a problem? Most of this seems to go back to Apple picking AT&T as the exclusive network for the iPhone in the US. Users looking to move the iPhone to a faster network have devised software that unlocks the device and make in usable on other networks.

Many people are blaming AT&T for the debacle, but why would the American telecom company want to give up a million users? AT&T's drive to keep its network usage up may only be making bad PR for Apple.

By the way, for anyone who hasn't put two and two together yet, the unlocking program that Apple is worried about DOES mean that users here in the UAE can use the iPhone, provided they can have one shipped to you from the US or Europe and that they don't update the software.

Futile efforts

Part of the problem is that Apple is trying to do what the rest of the world has already deemed futile. It's trying to tie the phone to exclusive contracts with telecom users.

The tactic is well established in the US. You buy a phone, albeit locked, directly from a telecom, often at a considerable discount, and sign a contract for one or two years of phone service. Any attempt to end the contract early usually results in a fine, sometimes as high as Dh900. You can buy unlocked phones in the States, but the discount is so high, often hundreds of dollars, that the majority of the US cell phone market is based on exclusive contracts and locked phones.

However, the rest of the world doesn't work that way. It will be interesting to see what happens when Apple attempts to début the phone here in the UAE. If the company continues its current strategy, it will have to either choose du or etisalat. How the TRA will respond to one network having an exclusive advantage over the over is hard to say, but Apple does seem bent on keeping unlocked iPhones off the market.

If Apple decides to side-step the problem and allow both networks to provide service in the UAE, Apple is going to have to defend the move against any other network that wants to provide service. It will again put the company in a nasty situation.

Apple's strategy has raised a lot of questions about why their marketing department is being monumentally stupid. If Apple would just unlock the phones, they wouldn't have to worry about the now mounting anti-Apple sentiment or how it will handle networks outside of the US and Europe.

The unlocking program that Apple is worried about DOES mean that users in the UAEcan use the iPhone, provided they can have one shipped and that they don't update the software.