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Apple's iPhone lock stops thieves, but has unintended consequences

4 points by LeoNatan25 12y ago

chrisBob 12y ago
Apple found a way to make their customers (including potential government customers) happy, and at the same time they have reduced the number of used iPhones on the market. This is a win for everyone except people that want an iPhone but don't want to give Apple money, and no one cares too much about their opinions. I want an iPhone, and Apple has a huge financial incentive to make it harder for me to get a used one. If a used iPhone isn't significantly cheaper then I will buy a new phone and Apple nets $300 instead of $0.
- LeoNatan25 12y ago
  I don't see what the problem is. Before selling, all I have to do is disable Find My iPhone and reset all settings on the phone. It is now unlocked and I can sell it.
  - chrisBob 12y ago
    Correct. And this is addressed in the article. The issue is that phones that are accidentally left locked and returned are junk. Selling a used phone is always good for business because most people will use the money to buy a new one. Buying a used phone isn't nearly as good for Apple.
- DanBC 12y ago
  Ann is an early adopter and moves to new iPhone as soon as they're released. She can afford to do this by selling her old phone. Making it harder for Ann to sell her phone to Bob (who likes Apple product, and can afford to buy apps, but can't afford a new phone or who wants to support re-use of older equipement) means that Ann will delay buying that new phone.
DanBC 12y ago
> "You can't sell a phone as a functioning device because the IMEI number on the chip is not going to reactivate. Maybe you can yank the screen and the battery and sell those for parts, then melt down the motherboard and get 85 cents," he says. "The economics are completely upside-down." To get one kg of gold you need about 3 tons of phones - about 30,000 to 40,000 old handsets. There are some other metals in there too. But it's a fantastic waste of resources for perfectly good working phones to be destroyed like this. I'm not sure how connected this is to the "dead relative left me an iPhone but it's locked" problem. In the UK Apple are correctly asking for a court order before they do anything with the phone but they sometimes do not accept grant of probate as that court order.

4 points by LeoNatan25 12y ago

Apple found a way to make their customers (including potential government customers) happy, and at the same time they have reduced the number of used iPhones on the market. This is a win for everyone except people that want an iPhone but don't want to give Apple money, and no one cares too much about their opinions. I want an iPhone, and Apple has a huge financial incentive to make it harder for me to get a used one. If a used iPhone isn't significantly cheaper then I will buy a new phone and Apple nets $300 instead of $0.

LeoNatan25 12y ago
I don't see what the problem is. Before selling, all I have to do is disable Find My iPhone and reset all settings on the phone. It is now unlocked and I can sell it.
- chrisBob 12y ago
  Correct. And this is addressed in the article. The issue is that phones that are accidentally left locked and returned are junk. Selling a used phone is always good for business because most people will use the money to buy a new one. Buying a used phone isn't nearly as good for Apple.
DanBC 12y ago
Ann is an early adopter and moves to new iPhone as soon as they're released. She can afford to do this by selling her old phone. Making it harder for Ann to sell her phone to Bob (who likes Apple product, and can afford to buy apps, but can't afford a new phone or who wants to support re-use of older equipement) means that Ann will delay buying that new phone.

DanBC 12y ago

> "You can't sell a phone as a functioning device because the IMEI number on the chip is not going to reactivate. Maybe you can yank the screen and the battery and sell those for parts, then melt down the motherboard and get 85 cents," he says. "The economics are completely upside-down." To get one kg of gold you need about 3 tons of phones - about 30,000 to 40,000 old handsets. There are some other metals in there too. But it's a fantastic waste of resources for perfectly good working phones to be destroyed like this. I'm not sure how connected this is to the "dead relative left me an iPhone but it's locked" problem. In the UK Apple are correctly asking for a court order before they do anything with the phone but they sometimes do not accept grant of probate as that court order.