Go ahead AT&T and Apple, bring on your law suits against fed-up consumers who are trying to recapture their right to freedom of choice, and see what kind of reaction you get. Think the outcry over the purposely un-replaceable battery scam is growing loud, wait until every iPhone purchaser is fully fed-up with the poor service and exorbitant fees forced down their throats because of your anti-competitive collusion. I hope you have deep pockets. Very deep. At least when Apple was screwing consumers with their proprietary hardware, OS and licensing schemes, there were open architecture Windows-based PCs and freely available software not controlled by Apple as an alternative.
Attempts to unlock the iPhone would not have been necessary if Apple and AT&T had not acted in a monopolistic and anti-consumer manner in their collusion to eliminate service provider choice. Notice that in Europe, Apple is dancing with a lot more partners, partly because the EU doesn't play the monopoly game.
Cell phone manufacturers have gotten away with this sort of scam for a long time, locking purchasers' phones, their personal property, to a specific service provider. Locking the phone makes the phone useless if the consumer wishes to change providers, requiring them to buy another phone, and go through the hassle of transferring their data between the two devices. This is paramount to theft on the part of cellular service providers. The wired phone companies can't get away with this sort of scam, so why is this activity tolerated from wireless service providers?
What kind of outcry would there be heard if cars were locked into running only on specific networks of roads, for instance, so that their owners couldn't drive their cars to their houses, or get to their intended destinations?
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A bit over the top
I'll agree that cell phone users shouldn't be locked into any one carrier, however a lot of what is said here is off base.
"outcry over the purposely un-replaceable battery scam is growing loud"
Not very loud... and not really a big deal. It will be some time before the battery needs to be replaced and even then the costs are not exorbitant compared to purchasing a new battery for other cellphone brands.
"every iPhone purchaser is fully fed-up with the poor service and exorbitant fees forced down their throats"
Not so. Most iPhone owners are quite content with the service and fees. Sure, they would welcome lower fees, but they certainly are not exorbitant compared to other carriers. It's also a choice to purchase an iPhone under the current conditions... it's not forced in any way.
"Apple was screwing consumers with their proprietary hardware, OS and licensing schemes"
Apple certainly hasn't been screwing consumers with proprietary their hardware/software combo. If anything, it's doing the consumer a favor since limiting the the OS to Apple hardware and eliminating clones allows them to deliver a better user experience. It's much more difficult for Microsoft to deliver a quality experience these days due to the countless flavors and configurations of hardware that are designed to run Windows. Just look at how Vista turned out and how many consumers and businesses are sticking with XP. Read the following for more insight on this:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/archives/2007/08/so_who_won_the.html
"freely available software not controlled by Apple as an alternative"
There's plenty of third-party software available for Mac OS X. Much of the software available for Windows is just crap anyhow.
Apple & AT&T may not get anywhere with lawsuits against those who unlock the iPhone as the law is a bit murky regarding this act. Again, I do agree cell phone owners should have more choice of carriers, but industry standards are not consistent and Apple chose to work with a carrier that would help deliver the best experience possible... also the one who would agree to fork over some subscriber $$ for the exclusivity. For the most part, it works for now, but I'm sure it will change in due time.
Bring on the suits?
No one is interfering with your right to buy any cell phone you like. No one is interfering with your right to go with any cellular provider you like. It just so happens that you want a combination which is not available. Tough.
If you wanted a Mercedes with a BMW engine, no one would be under any obligation to provide one for you. You could, if you wanted one badly enough, pay to have someone do a reliable installation of that BMW engine in your Mercedes. You would have to want one very badly, since your additional costs would not end with the completion of the installation.
No one -- no one -- has the right to have whatever they want, and anyone who thinks that a particular manufacturer or vendor has any obligation to satisfy his particular requirements is living in a dream world.
Apple has every right to make whatever product they wish, and to have that product work on whatever limited network they like, and you have every right to buy that product or not.
So what exactly is your position again?