Thanks you Mashoutposse (and adamyoshida) for being among the voices of reason.
I don't think I'm being unreasonable - and I do believe that the Apple policy I was presented with is wrong, and in fact, against certain laws.
A
What I think some people miss here is that this isnt an issue of settled or clear-cut law. In essence, so far as this works, courts have generally upheld the validity of EULAs and SLAs but have refused to recognize what might be termed as unconscionable provisions.
What does that mean in practice? Well, theres no clear cut line. It would be impermissible, Im sure, to offer a product with a warranty that was voided as soon as the unit was turned on. But, beyond that, there are stages.
For example, its clear to me as it ought to be clear to everyone that modifying the hardware of a product in an unsupported way (by physically opening up the case and, for example, soldering something to the board or removing physical chips from the unit) voids the warranty. I think thats common sense.
But, in general, in order for a promised warranty to be held void as a result of the actions of the user, it must be at least within the balance of probabilities that the user in some way caused the damage in question. For example, conversely, I think it would be fairly clear without extraordinary circumstances that a car manufacturer cannot declare a power train warranty void because the end user installed an aftermarket stereo system.
Where does that leave us with the iPhone. As I see it and again, Im not a lawyer (just an aspiring one):
1) Any physical modification of the iPhone certainly voids any warranty or guarantee.
2) Unlocking the iPhone would, in all likelihood partially void the warranty insofar as the unlocking process flashes the firmware and can cause damage to the chips which contain the firmware. However, I have a hard time seeing how Apple could contend that, for example, unlocking could cause a failed logic board or for a touchscreen to become non-responsive.
3) I just dont see any way in which it could be reasonably held that Third Party applications void the warranty. Indeed, this is an absurd notion one which Apple users, of all people, ought to be loath to accept. Its akin to a Microsoft getting together with computer manufacturers and declaring that installing non-Microsoft software on a unit would void the warranty. Even if this isnt illegal, its still just a plain bad policy.
The important point, which a lot of people dont seem to grasp, is that companies cant in all cases create an enforceable contract by simply dictating certain provisions. If it was true, wed all spend hours each day reading thousands of EULAs word-for-word to make sure we hadnt just signed over our childrens lives.
Beyond that, this is just plain bad policy for Apple. By far, aside from a few specialized professionals, Apples computer brand in particular is built upon goodwill and the fact that the brand, for various reasons, tends to be favoured by people who are influencers. In general, I would suggest that the people who have unlocked iPhones and iPhones with third-party applications on them are probably Apples best salesmen, not only of iPhones but of computer units.
Steve Jobs is a brilliant businessman. But hes not God. Remember this is the same guy who insisted that all fans be omitted from the Apple III, resulting in chips popping out of their sockets and Apple issuing a technical bulletin instructing users to pick up their computers and to drop them to reseat the chips.
Apple saw the unlocking numbers, and the number of unlocked units being shipped around (at this point, there are unlocked iPhones at ever third-party cell phone kiosk that I pass in Vancouver if I was going to guess, I would guess that there are not tens but probably more than 100,000 unlocked iPhones floating around at the moment) and they panicked. They sent out a policy bulletin to their front-line staff which is being interpreted in wildly divergent ways, as we can see here. Theyre also alienating the affections of a fair number of people who play an important role in building Apples brand.
See, I like Apple I own a lot of Apple hardware. But Im not blind. I can see that their computer line-up is kind of strangely aligned. I can see that theres been a real decline in the physical quality of a lot of these products in the last few years. I can also see that the company is, in many ways, probably stretched a bit too thin for its size which is why we see so many product dates slipping.
I also have the feeling that were seeing, in this case, both the negative and positive effects of Steve Jobs. Visionary on one side but, of the corporate executives of which Im most familiar, the one most likely to make decisions based entirely upon personal whims.
