Of course they all back it. Makes it more difficult for a smaller competitor to come along and offer something unique to the market.
Laws like this are ridiculous. The free market has already created a smartphone with this technology, and if people want to be safe, they will buy the phones that offer it.
It's not a law... "Voluntary agreement" is even in the first sentence...
And yes, laws like the proposed ones mentioned in the article need to be made. People don't make rational decisions when it comes to smartphones. Most don't lock their devices with a passcode, and to my knowledge, Apple is the only device maker so far to include an easy-to-use lock-and-locate feature (Find my iPhone) and a security system that's so easy to use (Touch ID), you'd be silly not to use it. Without rational decision making, the free market doesn't necessarily produce the best result, and these highly profitable, easy-to-steal devices without anti-theft features would continue to be stolen and sold. And because of those irrational people who don't buy phones with anti-theft features, thieves target
all phone owners, including me, the rational one
with the phone with anti-theft features.
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Kudos to these other companies for doing this now, but they took way too long to do it. If/when LG jumps on board, that pretty much runs the manufacturer gamut too.
(BlackBerry devices have built-in anti-theft features in that thieves probably throw BlackBerries back at their owners after realizing what they just stole... Buh dum, tss!)