What if Apple unlocked the iPhone?

While reading Jeff Atwood’s excellent Coding Horror blog entry today about branching and source control I had a flashback to my childhood reading Marvel comics. He mentioned the What If series, and it just got me thinking of other what if tech scenarios. The first what if I want to discuss is the iPhone.

What if the iPhone was unlocked? When I say unlocked, I’m talking about using the phone on the carrier of my choice. How nice would it be if I could go down to my Verizon store and get a new iPhone at the same time my brother goes down to his T-Mobile store and gets his. I know one is CDMA and the other is GSM, but I can get a RAZR on Verizon and T-Mobile so I know it can be done. Apple can make the iPod shuffle, nano, classic and touch so why not two different iPhones? I know that Apple gets a cut of the subscription fees from AT&T, but I’m sure they could have worked out similar deals with the other big carriers. Maybe I spend too much time writing code and not enough doing business deals, but I fail to see how tying the phone exclusively to AT&T is the best option for Apple. We know it’s not the best option for consumers.

Apple seems to be wielding a heavy hand when it comes to the iPhone in general. You need to use iTunes to update the phone which means you’re out of luck if you’re not on the Windows or Mac platforms. Unlike Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, there’s no SDK available for third part application development or a means of installing applications onto the phone. I’ve heard some claim that keeping third party apps off the phone preserves the user experience that Steve Jobs Apple intended, or that it keeps users from unknowingly breaking their phones causing nightmares for support. Neither of those arguments make sense to me. If I buy a nice new MacBook I can install any non-Apple applications I want and still get support as long as I haven’t done anything to break my Mac. Shouldn’t you have the same freedom on your phone? If you do something dumb and brick your phone. That’s your problem, but don’t artificially limit what I can do with my own property in an effort to “protect me from myself”. If I drop it in a puddle of water I don’t expect Apple to replace my phone, and if I do something else to brick my phone I don’t expect a replacement either. When you get to the heart of the matter, the iPhone is just another computer. Why not treat it as such?

Here’s an analogy. I just put new tires on my truck. Ford recommends a specific size tire, but if I choose a bigger size I don’t have to worry about the truck not starting the next time I bring it in to the dealer for service. I also understand that if those bigger tires cause a problem, I’m probably not going to be covered by the warranty. How come this same logic can’t be applied to the iPhone? It’s because the cell phone market in the US mistreats its customers, and Apple fell right into the status quo with the iPhone. That’s why Apple’s choice to lock the phone into AT&T and it’s adversarial stance against unlocking has been such a disappointment.