Each year, Apple releases a new version of the software running its iconic mobile devices, the iPhone and iPad. And each year, a small but dogged community of hackers sets out to break it - or, in the words of the hackers, "jailbreak" it.
The liberation imagery long seemed apt. Apple puts strict limits on how its devices can be used, requiring, for example, that all apps be bought through the company's lucrative iTunes store. By comparison, the hackers styled themselves as plucky hobbyists seeking freedom from what they derided as Apple's "walled garden" and into a promised land of virtually limitless new software.
That image has taken a beating in recent days as prominent hackers have battled allegations that they've been working not for ideals but for money. The supposed payoffs would have come from Chinese investors eager to cash in on the spread of Apple products in that country.
Although there's no evidence money changed hands, the controversy has highlighted how Apple's restrictions on its mobile devices have fuelled the creation of alternative marketplaces, where the thrill of trying to outsmart one of the world's richest companies mixes with at least the possibility of fat profits for those who succeed.
"Anything that can open up a whole new line of sales on [Apple devices] is certainly worth a lot to somebody," said Brian Krebs, who covers internet security issues on his blog, KrebsOnSecurity. "If you jailbreak it, it means there are millions of more apps to sell."
Apps for mobile devices earned nearly $US27 billion in 2013 and are projected to earn more than $US76 billion in 2017, with Google's Android operating system and Apple's iOS platform the dominant players, according to Gartner, a research firm. Apple reported $US9.3 billion in revenue last year from its iTunes store, which sells apps along with music, movies and electronic books.
Among the key growth markets is China, where lower-priced Android devices have a large lead and Apple is working to make inroads. It announced a deal in December to offer the iPhone through China Mobile, the world's largest cellular carrier.
Apple's tightly controlled ecosystem has long been part of its appeal. Company founder Steve Jobs, who died in October 2011, obsessed over every detail of the user experience, with the goal of having hardware, software and online services working together seamlessly.
The tradeoff came in control for consumers. While Google's Android devices are made by many different manufacturers and can load apps from any store a user chooses, Apple makes it own products and rigorously oversees the apps available on iTunes, typically taking a 30 per cent cut from every sale and barring developers who do not comply with the company's many rules.
"Apple products are like beautiful crystal prisons," said Peter Eckersley, director of technology projects at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group. "Deviation from that is not allowed."
Jailbreaking can allow users of Apple mobile devices substantial new powers - for example, to fake their locations to defeat location tracking and service blackouts. It can allow free "tethering" so users can direct data streams from their iPhones to other devices without paying for a separate connection. And it can allow the use of alternative browsers that have privacy settings not available on Apple's Safari.
Advocates for the disabled, meanwhile, have sponsored a campaign to raise money in support of jailbreaking Apple's latest mobile device operating system, iOS 7, because iTunes does not offer some apps they find helpful.
Jailbreaking devices removes key security features. One of the few successful iPhone attacks - a prank virus that changed the background screen to an image of British pop star Rick Astley - spread on jailbroken devices.
"Apple's goal has always been to ensure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone, and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience," Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said in a statement. "As we've said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably."
Jailbreaks and other types of hacks once were widely available for free, but the security vulnerabilities they rely on have become valuable commodities, in part because of the demand from government intelligence services, such as the National Security Agency.
The recent controversy flared when, a few days before Christmas, a hacker group called the "evad3rs" released the first publicly available jailbreaking tools for iOS 7. The tools also loaded a Chinese app store, called Taig, for devices that were set to use the Chinese language.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/jailbreaking-apple-devices-creates-business-for-hackers-20140101-305p9.html#ixzz2pCo7sb9U
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