Steve Jobs' Biggest Mistake: Not Selling Activated iPhones

I believe that one critical mistake was made with the iPhone that has catastrophically affected Apple and it's iPhone user community. Steve Jobs' feet need to be held to the fire on this one:

Apple should have NEVER sold unactivated iPhones. By removing the industry-wide standard of the phone leaving the store activated to the carrier -- especially when they're depending on revenues from monthly service fees -- it essentially said to the world, "Hey, come hack this phone and screw us over financially!" Bad move. I know they wouldn't have sold quite so many phones at the beginning, but it would have locked so many more iPhone purchasers into the AT&T contract, kick-starting an automatic stream of money each month to both companies.

By selling unactivated iPhones, Steve Jobs traded good long-term PR for a simpler setup experience, all the while risking the product's financial success. Now what we have are people (rightly) complaining that a product that they "own" is being maliciously bricked. If all those phones had been activated in the first place, what would AT&T or Apple care if they're hacked, so long as the $$$ is flowing in their direction each month?

This is unprecedented. If I buy a product from a manufacturer and NEVER use it for its original and intended purpose, the sale is still complete. The completion of the sale is NOT a contract that I'm going to then use it for what the manufacturer wants me to. At no point does the manufacturer have the right to come back and destroy my product because I never used it the way they wanted me to. Sure, they don't have to support it if I break it, or even provide updates that won't potentially mess things up, but INTENTIONALLY breaking it after saying they weren't trying to intentionally break it is pathetic. I know it hasn't been proven that Apple intentionally bricked all these phones, but I can't see how the other updates that they did apply necessitated the update that bricks an unlocked iPhone.

Apple has a really dark cloud hanging over it where I'm concerned... and I don't even own an iPhone.

The way to fix it: Start selling those things activated. Don't let people walk out of the store until those terms of service and service contract are understood, signed, and sealed. Then whine if these subscribers violate the terms of service and brick their unlocked phones if the TOS allows for it.

Well, whether the short term issues work themselves out in the long term or not, Apple's got some work to do to right this ship from a public relations standpoint.

It's just unreasonable to expect that every customer is going to buy an unactivated phone and run home to get set up on AT&T. It's just plain shady to intentionally brick the phones of those who do when no terms of service are in place to allow you to do so.

Those results may be good for stockholders, but a company is more than just how high its stock price is. If Apple keeps pissing off its customers then people will stop buying.

Even though it's already sold over a million units and Apple's stock prices are pretty high, I really think this is taking a hit on Apple for the long term.

One thing I do wonder is this: What are the "terms of service" in the box of an unactivated iPhone? Does it say, "thou shalt not hacktivate this on another cell carrier or we'll brick your phone!"?

Americans are allowed to unlock their locked phones. Apple has damaged these people's property and gone against that nationwide permissible action. Not good, people.

There's a difference between financial success now and financial success in the future. The difference? Public relations.

Apple has thoroughly f'ed themselves over with this one. And if 1.1.1 was the only mistake they've made in the past year then it'd be a whole different thing. But look how many decisions Apple's made lately that have pissed off more than one portion of their user base.

This was the straw that broke the camel's back. They made a deal with the devil so that iPhones can have Visual Voicemail when every other function of the phone would have worked on any GSM network with EDGE WORLDWIDE, they released a completely revamped and crippled version of iMovie, they kicked every early adopter in the rear by dropping the iPhone's price by 1/3 two months after its release, and then they intentionally tried to brick unlocked iPhones because some users decided not to activate their unactivated iPhones with the carrier that Apple teamed up with.

Apple's in the business to make money. Apple will make money when they sell products to their customers. Customers will buy products when they believe in the products being sold and the company selling them. Apple's customers are seriously starting to disbelieve as of Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007.

We have seen a lot of success on Apple's part, and if they don't shape up, the success we've seen up to now will not last. Chris Breen even thinks so.

To get back to my original point, Apple would have dodged all of this if they'd sold activated phones or just sold unlocked phones.

Well aren't you lucky that you can drop $400 to $600 (depending on when you bought the phone) of your "discretionary income" to buy such a device. Us paycheck to paycheck folks quite honestly have lots of interest in the iPhone, too, however we can't just afford to stop feeding our kids or saving up for our baby that's on the way. I'm also not real interested in paying the fees for canceling my existing T-Mobile contract to gain the added benefit of Visual Voicemail.

The story would be different if Apple and AT&T subsidized the iPhone's cost through the service plan or sold an unlocked phone that I could use on T-Mobile. Since the companies are so greedy for money and profit that they can't do either, I guess I'll just have to wait a LONG time to get an iPhone and those companies will have to wait a LONG time to get my money.

I thought about replacing my existing Moto RAZR with an iPhone whenever the RAZR dies and save up between now and then. All I'd need is to unlock the iPhone and I'd be good to go. But no, Apple will have none of that and will insist on bricking MY equipment if I so much as dare install an update.

Oh, and if it's just a phone, I guess my RAZR is working just great for me and I'd have no reason to ever buy an iPhone and fill Apple and AT&T's coffers. Maybe I'll find an unlocked RAZR 2 to replace this one. Thanks for helping me on my decision.