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Apple tries to patent method to lock down your mobile device
By Chris Foresman | Last updated October 2, 2009 2:35 PM CT
One of the ways Apple's iPhone succeeded where other phones failed is that it doesn't let carriers install custom firmware that locks out features of the phone. However, Apple doesn't appear to be above giving carriers a way to be able to do that, even with the iPhone. The company filed a patent application earlier this year (published yesterday) for "provisioning" services on a mobile device based on a custom carrier profile.
In the patent filling, revealed by Slashdot, Apple describes a unified system for allowing a carrier-defined list of approved and unapproved features and applications to be uploaded to the device during activation, essentially allowing carriers to restrict whatever features or applications it decided not to "allow" on its network. "[M]obile devices often have capabilities that the carriers do not want utilized on their networks," according to the patent application. "For example, a mobile device may be designed with Bluetooth functionality, but the carrier may wish to prevent its users from taking advantage of that capability. Various applications on these devices may also need to be restricted."
Using a carrier profile to accomplish this has two main "benefits" over using custom firmware. One is that it works on systems, like Apple's iPhone, that require that code be digitally signed by a "trusted authority." In the past, carriers could cripple the features of mobile devices by tweaking its firmware. Custom firmware from AT&T wouldn't have Apple's signature, and would therefore not run. The other is that it allows easy customization for each carrier. Otherwise, Apple would have to be in charge of creating custom versions of iPhone OS, and likely implementing some system that would limit each version of the firmware to customers of each particular carrier—both would be a real hassle for Apple, and possible for carriers and users.
When the iPhone was released, none of its features were disabled, since Apple controlled the firmware and it was the same for every device. In fact, Apple was even able to get carriers to implement additional functionality to enable its famed Visual Voicemail feature. The move suggested that Apple had turned the table on carriers—instead of carriers dictating phone features to manufacturers, manufactures could instead innovate by building in the features they thought would bring the best value to users. And for the most part, the iPhone has fulfilled that promise.
Here the implications are quite ominous. Imagine you could only use the GPS on your iPhone with AT&T's Navigator app—no TomTom, no Navigon, no other options, period. The app is free (for now), but you'd be stuck with a $10 per month charge to use it, and it only works where there is a data connection to access map data. Imagine further that AT&T decided to kill GPS capabilities in the included Maps app—it's not the greatest way to do real-time navigation, but it works in a pinch. Let's just say we think such a scenario would pretty much suck, and we can only imagine the backlash it would cause from users.
With the method described in the patent, Apple appears to be giving carriers free rein to disable whatever feature or application it decides it could otherwise "monetize" by providing its own service. This tactic is one that has drawn the most ire from mobile customers, and one that the iPhone itself had originally prevented. It flies in the face of net neutrality principles, which according to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski should extend to wireless networks as well. The realities of the current mobile market may make such methods an unpleasant necessity in the short term, but Apple shouldn't be building and patenting systems that allow mobile carriers to continue their most egregious anti-consumer practices. And it certainly can't endear a company that is still under FCC investigation related to the Google Voice app rejection.
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